Formula 1 News: Verstappen tops final practice for Japanese GP

World Champion Max Verstappen turned a lap of 1m29.563s in his #1 Red Bull Honda to top the final practice for the 2024 Japanese GP at Suzuka.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen waited until late in the session to strap on a set of the soft Pirelli rubber and his time was 0.269s faster than his teammate Sergio Perez who finished 2nd.

George Russell was third for Mercedes, 0.355s behind and just ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who ended up 0.474s behind the Dutchman.

Fernando Alonso rounded out the top-5 in his #14 Aston Martin followed by the McLaren of Lando Norris, who was forced to abort a late fast lap after taking too much curb.

Australia race winner Carlos Sainz set the seventh-quickest time, with Oscar Piastri – who celebrates his 23rd birthday today – going eighth for McLaren, while RB’s Yuki Tsunoda went ninth at his home track and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top 10 in the Ferrari.

Once again, Yuki Tsunoda was faster than his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who may lose his ride soon if he can’t beat his Japanese teammate.

Ferrari might have been sandbagging there, whatever they were doing didn’t impress Leclerc too much, who was complaining on the radio late to his engineer, complaining about the timing of his late flying runs.

Both Norris and Piastri made a mistake on their flying runs – and without those, they looked likely to be right up there with Red Bull. Nail those laps later on and who knows what awaits. Could Piastri steal a pole on his birthday?

The two Red Bulls start as favorites for pole later on – but watch out for some of the others.

2024 Japanese GP Practice 3 Results