Unlike on Friday, the 3rd free practice session in Japan took place in dry conditions. As the home qualifying laps will take place in similar conditions, the drivers have been trying to understand the dry tires.
Some sections of the track put the drivers in difficulty, especially in the last chicane, there were names that blocked the tires and went off the track. However, no incidents occurred during the session.
Max Verstappen started 1: 32,050 on the soft tire at the start of the session and this lap was at the top for a long time.
In the last half hour, the drivers started to press the gas a little more and Carlos Sainz took the lead with 1: 30,965.
The Spaniard appeared to be leading the session, but Verstappen switched to the new set of soft tires and took the lead at 1: 30.671 with about four minutes to go.
There was no name that could beat Verstappen in the remainder and the Dutch driver completed his only dry training as a leader.
Sainz did not attempt a new time in the final moments and ended the session 0.294 seconds late. Charles Leclerc finished third in the final free practice session of the weekend, where he has struggled so far to make clean laps, just 0.015 seconds behind team-mate Sainz.
Carlos Sainz Ferrari F1-75
Photo: Zak Mauger / Motorsport images
In Alpine, Fernando Alonso’s performance was truly remarkable and he did well in both dry and wet conditions. Alonso finished the session in fourth place, 0.649 seconds behind the leader Verstappen, signaling that he could have achieved a good result.
Sergio Perez tried the fastest lap on the new set of soft tires in the final moments, but after getting stuck in traffic, he was 0.843 seconds behind and finished fifth.
The Mercedes drivers finished Friday’s first free practice on the wet track, but fell behind on the dry.
George Russell finished the session with Pierre Gasly at a dangerous moment, finishing sixth with 0.859 seconds, while Lewis Hamilton was seventh with 0.918 seconds.
McLaren looked better in the dry than on Friday, with Lando Norris one second behind in eighth and Daniel Ricciardo 1.1 seconds behind in 11th. Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll split the duo.
Williams driver Alex Albon was 12th, 1.2 seconds behind, while Valtteri Bottas with the new updates was 13th and Sebastian Vettel was 14th.
At Haas, Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher, who switched to the reserve chassis, finished 15th and 16th respectively.
The last four places were Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Nicholas Latifi and Pierre Gasly.
While all the riders did their fastest laps on soft dough, the names that did the most laps were Russell and Ricciardo with 28 laps. Alonso recorded the lowest number of laps with 20 laps.
Qualifying rounds will take place at 9:00 am ET.
Session result:
