Grass fires blight final hour of Japanese GP practice

The interruptions came despite efforts by organisers and the FIA to mitigate the problem which had triggered the red flag twice during second practice on Friday.

Even still, McLaren showed it is again the team to beat, though Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri only held a slender margin over George Russell’s Mercedes.

After a rough opening day on Friday, Jack Doohan was among the first out on track in his rebuilt Alpine when running began.

The squad had worked through the night to get the car repaired, rather than building up the spare tub.

The wind direction had swung around 180 degrees from Friday, offering a headwind down the front straight and a tailwind through the twisty opening sector.

It made things a handful exiting Degner 2, with a number of drivers running half a car wide and dropping a wheel into the gravel.

Initial running lasted only six minutes before the red flag was shown for a grass fire, the third of the weekend.

Overnight, the FIA introduced measures designed to mitigate the issue that blighted Free Practice 2 yesterday; the grass verges had been cut short, clippings cleared, water applied, and response crews stationed around the circuit.

It clearly proved insufficient as teams lost out on another seven minutes of track time ahead of qualifying.

The early soft tyre runs saw the Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton top proceedings ahead of the two McLarens.

Both Norris and Piastri had been caught out at Degner 2, bouncing over the kerb and into the gravel.

When they did string a lap together, they proved fastest, comfortably so – over three-tenths clear of Leclerc.

Piastri was quickest on a 1:27.768s, a slim 0.05s quicker than Norris. Leclerc closed in with another lap, but McLaren had pace in hand.

A hard tyre run from Yuki Tsunoda saw the Red Bull driver fifth fastest after half an hour, an encouraging seven-tenths down on the soft tyre effort laid down by Piastri.

Max Verstappen in the other Red Bull was focused on longer runs, leaving him well down the order by comparison.

Russell showed well for Mercedes, going fastest some 10 minutes after the Ferrari and McLaren pairings had been on their performance runs.

Meanwhile, Tsunoda opted for another performance run with 17 minutes remaining, resulting in a 1:28.785s, splitting the two McLaren drivers at the time with what was the fifth best time.

A few moments later, Verstappen managed a 1:28.685s to go fourth best, only a tenth better than his new teammate.

When Piastri logged another push lap, he shot to the top by a comfortable 0.394s over Russell’s previous best though the Mercedes driver got to 0.086s of his McLaren rival with his own next effort.

The single lap runs came to an end with Norris, who inched ahead with a time 0.026s better than this teammate.

He completed the lap just before a second red flag was thrown, again for a grass fire, this time approaching 130R.

That would ultimately end the session with insufficient time to resume proceedings before the allotted hour elapsed.

It left Norris fastest from Piastri and Russell, the McLaren pair fastest with the Mercedes close – just as had been forecast by Piastri following Friday’s running.

Yuki Tsunoda showed well and there were also encouraging signs for Liam Lawson, who ended running 12rg fastest.

Jack Doohan meanwhile clocked 15 important laps heading into qualifying as he ended the hour 14th, though some eight-tenths down on Gasly.