Rosberg tops FP3 as Hamilton crashes

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Japan, Circuit Suzukajp

Nico Rosberg topped the times in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Team mate Hamilton was still second fastest despite premature end of his session due to a crash at turn 1.

Hamilton's crash ripped off the left front tyre of Hamilton's car and left clearly left Mercedes with a lot of work to do in order to get the car ready for qualifying 2 hours later. The incident also meant that Hamilton was unable to do any runs on the medium tyre in the morning, possibly putting him somewhat on the backfoot for qualifying.

Behind the Silver Arrows, Fernando Alonso was third quickest for Ferrari, just ahead of the Williams cars of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

Slightly less active during the session was Kimi Raikkonen who saw Ferrari change the engine on his car in preparation for qualifying. Sebastian Vettel meanwhile also got sidelined due to ERS issues on his Renault powered Red Bull.

Results

Pos.No.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1:33.228-14
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:34.2100.98210
314Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:34.4391.21112
419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1:34.5641.33612
577Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1:35.0611.83316
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing-Renault1:35.0861.85813
720Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1:35.2512.02316
825Jean-Eric VergneStr-Renault1:35.4942.2668
926Daniil KvyatStr-Renault1:35.5382.31017
1022Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:35.5492.32116
1127Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1:35.7322.50415
127Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:35.9952.7675
1311Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1:36.3653.1378
1421Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1:36.4073.17922
151Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:36.4603.2326
168Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1:36.5583.33019
1713Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1:36.6173.38912
1899Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1:36.6263.39820
199Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1:37.3674.13912
204Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1:37.8834.65517
2117Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1:38.1024.87415
2210Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1:38.7845.55612