2023-09-23 03:35:00
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Norris and Piastri as Red Bull’s main rivals?
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Charles Leclerc immediately set a 1’31″963 on soft tyres, while Carlos Sainz was less than half a tenth behind in 1’32″001, also on the best performing tyres.
Lance Stroll first rode on hard tires and was 1″7 behind, while the McLaren F1 drivers were also in an attempt on soft tyres. Oscar Piastri took first position in 1’31 “891, before Norris beat him in 1’31″174.
Esteban Ocon set the fifth fastest time behind the McLarens and Ferraris. Lewis Hamilton was second, 0.596 seconds behind Norris, and George Russell was 0.010 seconds behind his teammate. Liam Lawson complained of smoke, but his engineer Pierre Hamelin told him that they were new brakes, and that this was easily explained.
Sergio Pérez set his first time, with the fourth time two thousandths of a second behind Russell. Max Verstappen set the best time in 1’30″960, two tenths ahead of Norris, while Leclerc moved up to third.
The session was then calm until its last quarter, during which the drivers took advantage of an improved track to make the most of their soft tires. Before that, a few drivers took to the track on worn tires to test the degradation.
Given the significant degradation, the runs were limited in length, but above all in their number, to conserve tires. Piastri then took the lead of the session in 1’30″555.
Verstappen later improved to 1’30″267, while Norris also did better, nevertheless maintaining a gap of two tenths. Sergio Pérez moved up to fourth place but is seven tenths behind his teammate, and he is ahead of both Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Lewis Hamilton, who was finally using his special chrome helmet, found a little more performance against his teammate George Russell. He is ahead of his young compatriot by almost three tenths, but Mercedes fails to get closer to the leaders.
Fernando Alonso and Guanyu Zhou complete the top 10 ahead of Valtteri Bottas, confirming the good dispositions of the Alfa Romeo on this circuit. Esteban Ocon is 13th while Logan Sargeant is ahead of Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly, with a car repaired from his accident yesterday, was unable to do better than the last time.
Pos.PiloteVoitureTempsTours 01 Max Verstappen Red Bull Honda RBPT RB19 1:30.267 12 02 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes MCL60 1:30.507 16 03 Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes MCL60 1:30.555 15 04 Sergio Pérez Red Bull Honda RBPT RB19 1:31.004 12 05 Charles Leclerc Ferrari SF-23 1:31.022 20 06 Carlos Sainz Ferrari SF-23 1:31.137 20 07 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes W14 1:31.159 13 08 George Russell Mercedes W14 1:31.505 9 09 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Mercedes AMR23 1:31.549 16 10 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo Ferrari C43 1:31.668 15 11 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari C43 1:31.699 15 12 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari VF-23 1:31.880 16 13 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault A523 1:31.924 13 14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Honda RBPT AT04 1 :31.951 18 15 Nico Hülkenberg Haas Ferrari VF-23 1:31.979 13 16 Logan Sargeant Williams Mercedes FW45 1:32.002 13 17 Liam Lawson AlphaTauri Honda RBPT AT04 1:32.048 18 18 Alex Albon Williams Mercedes FW45 1:32.113 12 19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes AMR23 1:32.154 19 20 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault A523 1:32.199 15
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#Formula #Japan #FP3 #Verstappen #ahead #McLaren #duo