#JapaneseGP FP3: @Max33Verstappen heads @McLarenF1 pairing. #F1

Norris Japanese GP FP3 – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen pipped McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the morning FP3 session ahead of qualifying at the Japanese GP.

The championship leader Verstappen posted the benchmark to take the practice session clean-sweep with a 1:30.267 effort and was 0.240 second faster than Norris with Piastri a further 0.288 adrift in third.

Verstappen headed the pack after the first stint on the C3 Pirelli red side-walled soft tyres, posting a 1:30.960 – slower than yesterday’s headline lap-time as overnight rain washed away the rubber on the Suzuka track surface.

There was little running until there was 20 minutes left on the clock, other than a heap of long race run data gathering particularly from the Ferrari’s to assess the degradation levels further on the now-used compounds from the opening stint.

But with 15 minutes remaining, many of the drivers put on another set of softs in preparation for this afternoon’s qualifying session.

Piastri knocked Verstappen off top spot by 0.4 seconds as the McLaren pairing showed their hand and was in-run beaten by team-mate Norris who posted a 1:30.507.

Verstappen was unable to beat Norris’s sector one effort but found an advantage in the final two sectors over the Briton to jump to P1 by 0.240 seconds.

High levels of degradation ensured that any other follow-up hot-laps were slower as the best of the softer compounds had already been used, securing Free Practice 3 in favour of the championship leader.

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez later flyer put him fourth, but 0.737 seconds adrift of the top three as the Mexican continued to lose time in the opening two sectors compared to the Dutchman.

Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz wound up in fifth and sixth as they continued to endure their arrears to two-time world champion Verstappen by being 0.755 and 0.870 off the benchmark respectively.

The pairing were first on the track at the beginning of proceedings, and continued to run longer on the softs to explore the Suzuka International Racing Course – Sainz suffered a snap of over-steer between the Degners during one of his sighting tours and just avoided the gravel trap.

Sir Lewis Hamilton out-paced Mercedes team-mate George Russell to take seventh place in the order as the seven-time world champion appeared marginally happier whilst the latter had limited running due to a wheel deflector problem.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu completed the top ten.

The other Alfa Romeo C43 entry of Valtteri Bottas finished FP3 outside the top ten in 11th place and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who took 12th, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who was 13th and home favourite Yuki Tsunoda who came 14th in the classification for AlphaTauri.

Williams Racing duo Logan Sargeant and Alexander Albon ended final practice 16th and 18th respectively as AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson split the pairing in 17th.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Alpine F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1220/japan/practice-3.html

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