Bottas fastest but crashes in final practice

2017 Japanese Grand Prix third practice

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Valtteri Bottas was quickest in final practice at Suzuka despite crashing halfway through session and being unable to continue.

The Mercedes driver had gone for his first run on a set of super-softs when he ran wide at the exit of Spoon curve and hit the barrier with the right-hand side of his car. Bottas limped back to the pits with a broken front wing and rear suspension.

His crash brought out the first of two red flags which badly disrupted other drivers’ efforts to do their qualifying simulation runs. That included Lewis Hamilton, who had done the fastest first and second sector times when his team mate crashes, but had to abort his run and pit.

The session was red-flagged again within minutes of it restarting when Kimi Raikkonen put his Ferrari more comprehensively into the barrier at Degner two. Vettel had run wide at the same corner earlier but continued. Raikkonen was caught out by a snap of oversteer and didn’t have enough room to keep the car from the wall.

That those conducting performance runs had to scrap their efforts again. There was enough time at the end of the session for further runs to be conducted but no one improved sufficiently to dislodge the two Mercedes from the top of the times sheets, both of which set their quickest efforts on the soft tyres. Even Vettel’s final super-soft run left him three-tenths of a second shy.

The Red Bull drivers completed the top five with Esteban Ocon’s Force India close behind. His team mate was ninth after losing time on the final sector on his best run. Both Renaults also appeared in the top ten plus a single of the Honda-engined McLarens, driven by Fernando Alonso.

Pos. No. Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’29.055 9
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’29.069 0.014 19
3 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’29.379 0.324 23
4 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1’29.910 0.855 15
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1’30.018 0.963 13
6 31 Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 1’30.109 1.054 12
7 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’30.315 1.260 19
8 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1’30.424 1.369 13
9 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’30.563 1.508 12
10 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1’30.764 1.709 22
11 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1’30.764 1.709 21
12 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Honda 1’30.770 1.715 18
13 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso-Renault 1’30.799 1.744 23
14 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’30.982 1.927 12
15 18 Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 1’31.011 1.956 20
16 10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso-Renault 1’31.353 2.298 25
17 8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’31.459 2.404 13
18 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1’32.579 3.524 22
19 94 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber-Ferrari 1’32.698 3.643 21
20 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’33.962 4.907 12

Combined practice times

Pos Driver Car FP1 FP2 FP3 Fri/Sat diff Total laps
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’30.151 1’29.055 -1.096 39
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’29.377 1’48.719 1’29.069 -0.308 52
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’29.166 1’29.379 +0.213 47
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1’29.541 1’30.018 +0.477 40
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’29.638 1’33.962 +4.324 35
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1’30.762 1’29.910 -0.852 41
7 Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 1’30.899 1’49.518 1’30.109 -0.79 37
8 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’30.974 1’30.315 -0.659 44
9 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1’31.235 1’30.424 -0.811 34
10 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’31.530 1’51.345 1’30.563 -0.967 38
11 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1’31.757 1’30.764 -0.993 45
12 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1’31.912 1’52.146 1’30.764 -1.148 44
13 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Honda 1’31.202 1’30.770 -0.432 43
14 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso-Renault 1’32.252 1’30.799 -1.453 38
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’31.216 1’30.982 -0.234 27
16 Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 1’31.602 1’52.343 1’31.011 -0.591 46
17 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’31.032 1’31.459 +0.427 35
18 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso-Renault 1’32.501 1’31.353 -1.148 43
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1’33.397 1’32.579 -0.818 53
20 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber-Ferrari 1’32.897 1’32.698 -0.199 52

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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2 comments on “Bottas fastest but crashes in final practice”

  1. Hopefully Ferrari are sandbagging!

  2. These 2017 cars have got Suzuka is baring it’s teeth… can’t remember seeing so many people getting bitten here, let alone it being only practice. I love this circuit!

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