Follow all the action from FP3 at the Japanese Grand Prix live right here.
11:25 Oh dear! Bottas has had a moment on the outside of Spoon and hes damaged his front wing, as well as damaging his wheel rim after brushing the barriers! The artificial grass on the outside of the corner has peeled off, and we have a red flag! This is a practice session, of course, so the clock is still ticking down, as Mercedes inspect their Finn’s wounded Silver Arrow.
11:20 No major mistakes to report for the moment. It appears that Mercedes and Ferrari are on different schedules right now; the two silver cars are out on new supersofts, while Vettel is doing a longer run on a set of softs. Ah, a mistake! Vettel has gotten it wrong at Degner Two and taken a trip through the gravel, but the German continues without too much alarm. He pits, however.
11:15 Bottas’ second effort pips Hamilton by 0.014 seconds. The benchmark is now 1.29.055, about half a second shy of the track record, held by Michael Schumacher.
11:10 Lewis Hamilton has gotten straight into his work, setting a 1.29.699 on soft tyres. Valtteri Bottas betters the benchmark to a 1.29.529, despite locking up at the hairpin. Hamilton has another go and goes 0.460 seconds clear of his teammate. Soft tyres are the order of the day right now.
11:05 Pierre Gasly sets the first time of the day, 1.33.030. Vettel has reported that the track is entirely dry.
11:00 The light turns green, it’s time for FP3! Sebastian Vettel is straight out in his Ferrari.
🚥 GREEN LIGHT 🚥 Away we go… One more hour of practice at Suzuka #JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 #F1 pic.twitter.com/bzzxk3rcF3 — Formula 1 (@F1) October 7, 2017
10:55 Here’s the weather then, it’s certainly a lot more dry than yesterday.
A few damp patches on the track but it's dry overhead 👍 #JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 #F1 pic.twitter.com/XrRsmrpjwQ — Formula 1 (@F1) October 7, 2017
10:50 We’re not far from the start now. The teams are always under pressure in situations like this, where they have rain during a weekend where the race itself is expected to be dry. Despite yesterday’s weather, however, the fans are back to cheer on their heroes!
10:45 Carlos Sainz bought out the red flag after a big collision with the barriers yesterday. Suzuka is a notoriously unforgiving circuit, with little margin for error and plenty of gravel.
10:40 FP2 was delayed due to heavy rain, with Lewis Hamilton fastest, while Kimi Raikkonen conceded that “we didn’t even try to learn anything”.
END OF FP2: Only 5 drivers post lap times HAM 📸
OCO
PER
MAS
STR #JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 #F1 pic.twitter.com/JMzxlKEXtF — Formula 1 (@F1) October 6, 2017
10:35 It was Sebastian Vettel who set the pace for Ferrari in FP1 yesterday, with title rival Lewis Hamilton in P2 and Daniel Ricciardo in P3.
10:30 Hello there, good morning, and welcome to FOX Sports Asia’s coverage of FP3 at the Japanese Grand Prix. We’re 30 minutes away from the start.
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