Max Verstappen completed a practice clean sweep of the Japanese Grand Prix but with a reduced margin to Lando Norris in second.
Verstappen left it late to set his final flying lap, logging a 1m30.267s, the fastest time of the weekend so far. But Norris and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri were within striking distance in second and third with newfound performance gains the long first sector.
Norris was 0.24s off Verstappen’s pace, with Piastri just 0.048s further back.
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Unlike Friday, when the Red Bull car was dominant through the first sector, Norris was fractionally quicker than Verstappen through the esses and up to the first Degner, with Piastri only marginally behind.
Verstappen instead build his advantage over the final two-thirds of the lap and particularly at the final split, suggesting the RB19 has been trimmed out for straight-line speed overnight.
Sergio Perez recovered to fourth by the end of the session, but the Mexican was 0.737s off the pace of his teammate — an improvement from the full second on Friday afternoon but enough to only just pip the Ferrari teammates.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were split by a tenth of a second for the Italian team, but both were lapping at around the same speed as on Friday, appearing to make no gains overnight and dropping back into the pack.
It leaves the Scuderia vulnerable to Mercedes in qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton spearheading for the German marque at 0.892s off the pace, just 0.022s behind Sainz.
The Briton appeared to be significantly happier in his car after a difficult Friday, albeit teammate George Russell’s time – more than 0.3s further back – was hampered by a damaged right-rear heat shield that curtailed his session to just nine laps.
Fernando Alonso dragged his Aston Martin to ninth in the order and 1.2s off the pace, beating Alfa Romeo teammates Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, who were closely matched a further 0.2s further back.
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen led Esteban Ocon, whose new motor had little effect on the competitiveness of his Alpine car in 13th.
Yuki Tsunoda, fresh from confirmation of his 2024 contract, was blocked by Magnussen on his first flying lap on his final set of fresh tires, with his follow-up attempt landing him 14th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Logan Sargeant and teammate
Liam Lawson. Both Tsunoda and Lawson used only a set of softs apiece, saving them for their late hot laps.
Alex Albon complained of a brake issue early in the session on his way to 18th. Both he and Williams teammate Sargeant burned through two sets of soft tires early in the session, leaving them only with used sets for the final runs when the track was at its quickest.
Lance Stroll spent the start of the session on hards before setting the 19th-quickest time of the session at 1.8s off the pace ahead of only Pierre Gasly in his repaired Alpine following his crash late on Friday afternoon.
