By F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth

SUZUKA, Japan, April 5 (Xinhua) -- A late flurry of fast laps saw McLaren's Oscar Piastri emerge fastest in a rain-affected second practice session for the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix on Friday.

Drizzle before and during the session meant a moist track, and with no rain forecast for Saturday or Sunday, there was little point in the drivers pushing hard and risking a crash in conditions unrepresentative of the rest of the weekend's running.

Local favorite Yuki Tsunoda was one of the few to attempt a serious lap time in the wet, perhaps with one eye on delighting his legion of passionate supporters who had braved the inclement weather.

However, with the track drying as the afternoon wore on, several drivers elected to fit slick tyres and head out for push laps in the session's dying minutes.

Piastri was the first to do so, with the Australian ultimately setting a best time of 1:34.725, some six seconds quicker than Tsunoda's best on Intermediate tyres earlier in the session.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was second, 0.5s adrift of Piastri, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc four seconds shy of Piastri's benchmark in third, and no other drivers setting a representative lap time on slicks.

Williams' Logan Sargeant may have been relieved at the lack of representative running in FP2, as the American was forced to sit on the sidelines after having damaged his FW46 in the morning session. Enditem

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