Nico Rosberg completed a clean sweep of all three practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix in a damp final hour of running.
After a quiet 20 minutes at the start of practice the track had dried in time for drivers to do their qualifying simulations. Using the soft tyres, Rosberg posted a 1’32.092 to lower the quickest time of the weekend.
Several drivers subsequently beat Rosberg’s run through the twisty first sector of the lap, but many encountered traffic later on their runs and had to abort their efforts. That accounted for his team mate Lewis Hamilton as well as Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen. “Cars everywhere,” lamented the Red Bull driver on the radio.
Daniel Ricciardo was seconq-quickest, ending up three-tenths of a second off Rosberg with his final run. Hamilton slipped to seventh in the final classification after a late improvement by Felipe Massa.
The biggest surprise of the session was produced by the Renault pair. As well as setting identical times to within one-thousandth of a second, both drivers featured inside the top ten.
Neither McLaren driver featured in the top ten at Honda’s home circuit. Both Haas drivers struggled with their cars but despite spinning early on Esteban Gutierrez managed the 12th best time.
Carlos Sainz Jnr only completed three laps as a technical problem confined him to the Toro Rosso garage.
Vettel: "A little bit damp all the way up the Esses." #F1 #JapaneseGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Hamilton wants to get back out for a run. "Dark clouds around" he reports. #F1 #JapaneseGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Hamilton reporting "a lot of heat from the right side of my seat". #F1 #JapaneseGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Hamilton told: "Sector two needs work."
Hamilton: "Turn eight, I'm guessing?"
"7, 8 and 11." (Dunlop, Degner 1 and hairpin). #F1 #JapaneseGP— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Hulkenberg reports the "grip feels good on the first lap". #F1 #JapaneseGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Verstappen: "I locked up into the hairpin." #F1 #JapaneseGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Verstappen reports a flat spot which he says means he "can't drive very fast" at the moment. #F1 #JapaneseGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Button: "Still understeer in the car, no issues with the rear end." #F1 #JapaneseGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Hamilton gives feedback on his practice start: "The rpm drops quite low." #F1 #JapaneseGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2016
Combined practice times
Third practice visual gaps
Nico Rosberg – 1’32.092
+0.302 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’32.394
+0.639 Sebastian Vettel – 1’32.731
+0.692 Max Verstappen – 1’32.784
+0.919 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’33.011
+1.179 Felipe Massa – 1’33.271
+1.192 Lewis Hamilton – 1’33.284
+1.547 Jolyon Palmer – 1’33.639
+1.547 Kevin Magnussen – 1’33.639
+1.554 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’33.646
+1.622 Fernando Alonso – 1’33.714
+1.695 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’33.787
+1.773 Valtteri Bottas – 1’33.865
+1.829 Sergio Perez – 1’33.921
+1.945 Daniil Kvyat – 1’34.037
+2.180 Romain Grosjean – 1’34.272
+2.296 Felipe Nasr – 1’34.388
+2.452 Marcus Ericsson – 1’34.544
+3.138 Esteban Ocon – 1’35.230
+5.164 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’37.256
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’32.431 | 1’32.250 | 1’32.092 | -0.158 | 73 |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’32.646 | 1’32.322 | 1’33.284 | +0.962 | 68 |
3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’34.112 | 1’34.150 | 1’32.394 | -1.718 | 62 |
4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’33.817 | 1’32.573 | 1’33.011 | +0.438 | 55 |
5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’33.525 | 1’33.103 | 1’32.731 | -0.372 | 66 |
6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’34.379 | 1’33.061 | 1’32.784 | -0.277 | 64 |
7 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’36.169 | 1’34.127 | 1’33.271 | -0.856 | 69 |
8 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’34.767 | 1’33.570 | 1’33.921 | +0.351 | 78 |
9 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’37.992 | 1’34.760 | 1’33.639 | -1.121 | 66 |
10 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’36.822 | 1’34.339 | 1’33.639 | -0.7 | 76 |
11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’34.530 | 1’33.873 | 1’33.646 | -0.227 | 74 |
12 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’35.003 | 1’33.985 | 1’33.714 | -0.271 | 59 |
13 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’36.219 | 1’34.643 | 1’33.787 | -0.856 | 48 |
14 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.381 | 1’34.028 | 1’33.865 | -0.163 | 73 |
15 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’35.446 | 1’34.305 | 1’34.037 | -0.268 | 62 |
16 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’35.672 | 1’34.086 | 1’56.323 | +22.237 | 63 |
17 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’35.688 | 1’34.241 | 1’34.272 | +0.031 | 63 |
18 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’35.967 | 1’34.824 | 1’34.388 | -0.436 | 53 |
19 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’35.677 | 1’34.398 | 1’34.548 | +0.15 | 64 |
20 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.294 | 1’36.318 | 1’34.544 | -1.75 | 58 |
21 | Esteban Ocon | Manor-Mercedes | 1’37.797 | 1’35.400 | 1’35.230 | -0.17 | 79 |
22 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’37.966 | 1’35.292 | 1’37.256 | +1.964 | 64 |
Don’t forget to make your predictions
Enter your predictions for this weekend’s race before qualifying begins:
2016 Japanese Grand Prix
- 2016 Japanese Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- 2016 Japanese Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Second Driver of the Weekend win for Rosberg
- Themes of 2016 continue in average Suzuka race
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix
BasCB (@bascb)
8th October 2016, 5:12
Hm, Hamilton made a few mistakes in S2 and aborted his fast lap. And traffic was quite a big thing. I can see that traffic combined with mistakes making qualifying tricky. But I sort of still expect Hamilton to make it work.
It seems Renault has either finally learned how to set up the car or it just seems to work wonderfully at this one track. Palmer certainly seemed content with the balance of it after the session. I would be surprised to see them be in Q3 on pace, but on the other hand they were getting closer already the last few races and with a few slip ups (seems McLaren are not quite on it here and Bottas did not seem to feel good out there for example) they might get one in there.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
8th October 2016, 5:41
I’ve noticed the cars are running stiffer in this track, probably because of the nature of the track, flowing tracks have suited Lotus/Renault, and the also the fact Renault introduced a new rear end packaging recently is some progress. I’d say what we’re seeing is mostly down to the track characteristics and the tyre pressures as some have disappeared (McLaren) and others (SFI and Renault) look better.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
8th October 2016, 6:23
Awesome. Are we going for Nico P1 and Lewis P2? Then Lewis win from P2? Traditionally when Nico is close ahead in practices Lewis can then match him in Q3.
Or is Lewis engine saving?
As for others phew so far behind.