Mark Webber was quickest in the final practice session of the F1 Japanese Grand Prix as he went a tenth of a second faster than Lewis Hamilton. Webber posted a time of 1:32.053 as both Mercedes drivers followed suite with Hamilton going 2nd fastest with 1:32.187 and Rosberg coming in 3rd with 1:32.355.
Sebastian Vettel was unable to complete a qualifying simulation on the softer medium tyres at the end of the session due to a KERS problem on his car.
Lotus-Renault’s Romain Grosjean was fourth fastest despite having done his medium-tyre lap earlier in the session. Kimi Raikkonen on the other hand was doing high-fuel running at the end of practice having been unable to do so yesterday.
Ferraris Alonso and Massa were fifth and sixth with Jenson Button’s McLaren almost matching their pace on the medium tyre. The first eight drivers were all within the 1:33.0 timings which puts a lot of pressure on all of them for the Qualifying session.
Force India’s Adrian Sutil was the latest driver to fall victim to the demanding Suzuka course. Sutil lost control of his car at the exit of Spoon Curve and knocked his front nose off on the barrier at the inside of the corner.
The Spoon Curve has created a lot of problems already for drivers as we saw McLarens Perez head into the barriers here. Even the Ferraris were struggling with oversteer mainly at the exit of this curve.
As you can see, the lap times of the drivers have significantly improved by almost two seconds and it looks like they have found the much needed grip during the FP3 session. Stay tuned as the Qualification round starts soon.
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