Max Verstappen inserted himself as the favourite for pole as he led Practice 3 at the Japanese Grand Prix.
After Friday’s rain, Saturday gave the teams their first taste of Suzuka in the dry with a myriad of run plans as some did long runs early and other went straight out on softs.
The Dutchman was among those immediately on the red-striped tyres and set an impressive early benchmark over a second clear of the field.
Eventually, Ferrari also turned their attention to single-lap pace and went fastest via Carlos Sainz.
But the reigning world champion, who needs the victory and fastest lap to be guaranteed his second title this weekend, bolted on a fresh set of softs for his final run and posted a 1m29.671s to lead the Spaniard by over three-tenths.
Charles Leclerc improved to finish just 0.015s behind his Ferrari teammate in third.
Fernando Alonso claimed an impressive fourth for Alpine, ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez in fifth, who had some traffic on his best lap.
After leading in the wet on Friday, Mercedes’ predictions of falling back in the dry came somewhat true in sixth and seventh, as George Russell led Lewis Hamilton by half a tenth.
Lando Norris was eighth for McLaren, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll completing the top 10 for Aston Martin.
This circuit is something special. ?#JapaneseGP ?? pic.twitter.com/Th2YXGJlCU
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 8, 2022
Further down, Daniel Ricciardo was only a tenth behind teammate Norris in 11th, ahead of Alex Albon in a solid 12th for Williams.
Alfa Romeo slipped back after a competitive Friday, as Valtteri Bottas was only 13th and Zhou Guanyu 18th.
Despite missing FP2 after his crash in FP1, Mick Schumacher was less than a tenth behind Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen in a strong recovery from the under-pressure German.
Yuki Tsunoda was 17th, while Pierre Gasly, confirmed as an Alpine driver in 2023 earlier on Saturday, finished slowest overall in the second AlphaTauri.
Full results from FP3 can be seen below:
Here’s how FP3 finished in Suzuka ?#JapaneseGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/4rtuJew5SW
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 8, 2022