Japanese GP: Free Practice #3 - Re-Cap & Times

JAPANESE GP - FREE PRACTICE #3 - RE-CAP & TIMES

    Mercdes Valtteri Bottas topped the times in the final free practice session ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, despite crashing midway through the session.

    Bottas had already set his 1m29.055s lap time when he ran wide at Spoon. He clipped the wall a couple of times and returned to the pits with a heavily damaged right rear. The session was red flagged to clear the incident, disrupting many drivers’ qualifying runs, including that of Bottas’ team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

    Hamilton had already completed a handful of flying laps and was fast enough to put himself second, just 14 thousandths of a second slower than Bottas.

    Only three minutes after the track was green-flagged, the session was interrupted a second time. This time Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen had collided with the barriers after losing control of the rear of his car. Ferrari had both their drivers running race simulations early in the session after FP2 was rained off on Friday, meaning Raikkonen didn’t complete any qualifying simulation before crashing out. He ended the morning bottom of the order.

    Vettel, completing his fast laps towards the end of the session, was the only one of the front runners to enjoy an uninterrupted qualifying simulation. It wasn’t enough to give him an edge over Mercedes, though, with his lap time three tenths of a second slower than Bottas.

    Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo took fourth and fifth, with Esteban Ocon “best of the rest” in sixth.

    Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, half a second quicker than team-mate Jolyon Palmer. Palmer, who will be leaving Renault after the Japanese GP, was 10th fastest, behind Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez.

TIMES:

1. Valtteri Bottas - 1:29.055 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland
2. Lewis Hamilton - 1:29.069 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain
3. Sebastian Vettel – 1:29.379 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany
4. Max Verstappen - 1:29.910 / Red Bull-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands
5. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:30.018 / Red Bull-TAG-Heuer / Australia
6. Esteban Ocon - 1:30.109 / Force India-Mercedes / France
7. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:30.315 / Renault-Renault / Germany
8. Fernando Alonso - 1:30.424 / McLaren-Honda / Spain
9. Sergio Perez - 1:30.563 / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico
10. Jolyon Palmer - 1:30.764 / Renault-Renault / Great Britain
11. Felipe Massa – 1:30.764 / Williams-Mercedes / Brazil
12. Stoffel Vandoorne - 1:30.770 / McLaren-Honda / Belgium
13. Carlos Sainz - 1:30.799 / Toro Rosso-Renault / Spain
14. Kevin Magnussen - 1:30.982 / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark
15. Lance Stroll - 1:31.011 / Williams-Mercedes / Canada
16. Pierre Gasly - 1:31.353 / Toro Rosso-Renault / France
17. Romain Grosjean - 1:31.459 / Haas-Ferrari / France
18. Marcus Ericsson - 1:32.579 / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden
19. Pascal Wehrlein - 1:32.698 / Sauber-Ferrari / Germany
20. Kimi Raikkonen – 1:33.962 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland

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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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