Japanese GP: Verstappen fastest in final practice after first dry outing
8th October 2022Red Bull Racing’s defending world champion, Max Verstappen, topped the timing board in Formula 1’s first dry outing of the weekend ahead of Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
How the final practice session unfolded…
There was a stampede of drivers trying to get out onto the circuit, ahead of the pit exit light going green, as the session got underway in dry conditions – the first time this weekend. Mercedes’ George Russell was the first man out onto the Japanese Suzuka Circuit and naturally set the initial lap on the board with the yellow-walled Medium compound tyres.
However, he was soon beaten by the likes of Sainz, Verstappen and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who set their times with the red-walled soft compound.
After the initial set of laps, Verstappen topped the timing board ahead of Perez and McLaren’s Lando Norris, in P2 and P3 respectively.
After half-an-hour, the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Russell peeled out onto the track to start their flying laps on the soft compound tyres – after a hard and medium tyre run, earlier on, respectively. As a result, their first runs of the session put Russell and Hamilton P2 and P4 respectively.
10 minutes later, the Ferrari duo of Sainz and Charles Leclerc topped the timing board, respectively, ahead of Verstappen who was demoted down to third on the timing sheets. At the same time, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top six, respectively.
In the final moments of the session, Verstappen topped the timing board by 0.294 seconds over Sainz (in P2) with a fresh set of soft compound tyres. In turn, this demoted Sainz and Leclerc down to P2 and P3 respectively.
Fastest three:
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
That’s it for the article; Japanese GP: Verstappen fastest in final practice after first dry outing! With qualifying next, who do you think will secure pole position? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
