Max Verstappen topped the final practice session ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix but had his advantage over the pack slashed by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Verstappen was just 0.2s clear of Norris at the end of the practice hour while a tight pack behind saw Sergio Perez head a four-driver group split by little more than one-tenth.
Oscar Piastri finished third fastest while Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson was 17th, three places back from team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
It took five minutes before the first car rolled out on track, Carlos Sainz ending the silence with his Ferrari team-mate following suit.
The early pace was set by McLaren, who’d sent both Norris and Piastri out on a set of soft compound tyres.
Conditions on track were different to what they’d been on Friday, with rain in the evening washing any racing rubber from the circuit; Norris’ early best of 1:31.174s was over a second slower than Verstappen had managed in Free Practice 2.
At Mercedes, George Russell reported a gear sync issue while Liam Lawson complained of a fire in the front brakes of his Scuderia AlphaTauri.
However, that turned out to be nothing of concern, the smoke the New Zealander saw was the new brakes bedding in.
Also on soft tyres for his early laps was Verstappen, who promptly went 0.2s faster than Norris’ best.
Williams only began its session at the 25-minute mark, Alex Albon going 10th fastest and Sargeant 14th.
Verstappen continued to hold sway at the top of the timesheets, ahead of Norris and then Leclerc.
There was just 0.12s separating the Ferrari driver, the two Mercedes that followed him, Perez, and Piastri.
A tenth further back, Sainz headed another gaggle that included Kevin Magnussen, Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, and Fernando Alonso.
With 20 minutes remaining, the qualifying simulations started in earnest.
That saw Piastri shoot to the top of the timesheets with a 1:30.555s, a time 0.4s better than Verstappen.
Norris soon went faster, by 0.048s, to leave the papaya pair first and second.
The Alfa Romeo Sauber duo had also risen up the order, Zhou Guanyu fourth with 15 minutes remaining and Valtteri Bottas sixth.
In a precursor for qualifying, traffic began to build up on the run from 130R into the
Casino Triangle at the end of the lap.
Some opted to back off and create a gap exiting Spoon Curve, though it was not always possible.
Verstappen’s qualifying simulation began with 10 minutes remaining, clocking a 1:3.267s to go fastest by 0.288s over Norris.
Piastri sat third ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Russell, while Alonso sat sixth.
Ferrari sent Leclerc and Sainz out late, though neither was especially rapid – losing more than half a second through the first sector alone.
The middle part of the lap was better, but it ended with Sainz only fifth quickest and 0.9s down on Verstappen, with Leclerc only one spot and one-tenth better off.
With Verstappen clear out front of the two McLarens, Perez was fourth, narrowly faster than Leclerc.
From fourth to Hamilton in seventh was split by just 0.15s, while a similar gap covered Russell in eighth, who lost time with a right-rear wheel shield issue, back to Valtteri Bottas in 11th.
The margins, in places, were minuscule, pointing towards an especially combative qualifying session later today.
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