Norris is Fastest During a Third Practice Session Disrupted by Grass Fires

The third and final practice session in Japan started much like how the second session ended: with a red flag due to a fire in the grass! All the teams and drivers will be hoping that the stewards can figure out a way to fix this issue before qualifying later. But they haven’t found that solution yet, with this session also coming to a close with a red flag, after Gabriel Bortoleto dipped a front wheel into the grass and not only had a slight scare but caused yet another fire to be ignited. The consequently shorter sessions is definitely frustrating for the drivers, especially Jack Doohan at Alpine, after having a crash in FP2 and coming back with a new chassis. The first red flag ended with still 46 minutes to go. From there we had a long run without any disruptions, and McLaren seemed to be leaving some speed on the table, as both Piastri and Norris couldn’t execute the perfect lap, and both Mercedes and Ferrari appeared just as quick as the papaya team. However, the two drivers managed to reel in the fastest times of the session, just like they had done in both practice sessions before this one. Lando ended up on top, just 0.026s faster than his teammate, and George Russell was not far behind the pair, as the Mercedes driver was third quickest. Also worth noting was Tsunoda’s performance in the Red Bull, which seemed to be quite well, even if Verstappen still finished 4 places above. We’ll see how qualifying goes later.

Below are the results of the last practice session in Suzuka.