Valtteri Bottas would lead an ominous Mercedes 1-2 in Practice 3 at the Japanese Grand Prix as he and fellow Finn, Kimi Raikkonen would crash causing two red flags in an interrupted session.
As Friday’s rain cleared and teams could get back to some dry running, the two Silver Arrows would be separated by just 0.014s in Bottas’ favour over Lewis Hamilton as his early pace of a 1:29.055s on the Soft compound tyre would be enough to remain ahead thanks to the disruption the later incidents would cause.
Indeed, it was the Mercedes that was responsible for the first stoppage as Valtteri ran wide onto the still damp Astroturf on the exit of Spoon ending up on the grass and hitting the wall several times going down the hill causing both front and rear damage to the right-hand side of his car.
The session would resume with 30 minutes to go, however, it would only be around three minutes before Raikkonen joined his countryman as a spectator following a typical Suzuka crash as he lost the rear of his Ferrari at Degner 2 and slid into the barrier on the outside.
The timing of his crash was more impactful, however, as most front-running cars had just taken to the track on the Supersoft tyres to complete a first qualifying-style run, meaning when the season resumed, the freshness had gone.
That was why no-one could challenge Mercedes’ early pace but Sebastian Vettel, who had his own trip into the gravel at Degner 2 earlier in the session, would be just over three-tenths behind in third and looks set to line-up on the front row after Bottas’ gearbox penalty.
The German would lead the two Red Bulls as Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo evaluated slightly different setups to try and find a compromise between downforce and top speed.
The result would be a one-tenth advantage in the Dutchman’s favour in fourth, using a higher drag setup with Ricciardo fifth despite the higher top speed.
Esteban Ocon was only a tenth further back in sixth for Force India ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault and Fernando Alonso in eighth for McLaren as the midfield battle again looks to be between those three teams.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard, he is now set for a 35-place grid penalty after taking a completely new power unit overnight with Honda introducing a Spec 3.7 engine.
Sergio Perez and Jolyon Palmer would make it two Force India’s and two Renault’s in the top 10 in ninth and 10th respectively as Felipe Massa suggested Williams could be in the midfield mix in qualifying in 11th with Stoffel Vandoorne 12th
Carlos Sainz was 13th but will join Alonso at the back by virtue of a 20-place grid penalty and was seen edging over the white line when the red light was on at one red flag restart although it’s not known if the stewards will take action.
Haas and Toro Rosso look like the two teams set to battle and decide who will join Sauber in the Q1 knock-out zone, with Kevin Magnussen 14th and Pierre Gasly some six-tenths slower than Sainz in 16th.
Romain Grosjean was blocked by his teammate during his fastest lap and was 17th as everyone improved to leave Kimi Raikkonen bottom of the timesheets after his crash.
