It was a quiet start to final practice as nobody appeared on the legendary Suzuka circuit in the opening few minutes.
Eventually the Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc came out first on the soft compound. A 1:31.963 from the Monegasque put him 0.038s ahead of the Spaniard after ten minutes.
The McLarens then came out and a stonking 1:31.174 from Lando Norris put him 0.717s clear of teammate Piastri. That big gap meant Hamilton, Russell and Perez all could slot in between the McLarens.
World Champion Max Verstappen was the one who was able to usurpe Norris as a 1:30.960 with three purple sectors put him on top by 0.214s. Leclerc moved himself into 3rd on his second attempt, but he was over 0.5s slower than Norris and 0.7s away from Verstappen.
Hamilton, Russell, Perez, Piastri, Sainz, Magnussen and Albon completed the top 10 at the halfway point.
The Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc had oversteer moments in the Degners in quick succession but got away with it.
McLaren were the first of the big teams to fit a second new set of softs and the gap between the teammates was much tighter. Norris’ 1:30.507 was only 0.048 quicker than Piastri.
Once again, however, Verstappen responded to the big challenge from the McLarens. Half a tenth down through the first sector, the Red Bull driver pumped in purple sectors in 2 and 3 to go fastest by 0.240s from the Brit and 0.288s ahead of the Australian.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
It was a sizeable gap to Sergio Perez in 4th as the Mexican was 0.737s away from his teammate, and he was only 0.018s quicker than Charles Leclerc.
Sainz and Hamilton were the only other drivers within a second of Verstappen’s benchmark. Fernando Alonso and Zhou Guanyu completed the top 10.
Bottas, Magnussen, Ocon, Tsunoda, Hülkenberg, Sargeant, Lawson, Albon, Stroll and Gasly filled the second half of the timesheet.
