Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Suzuka, 2018

Hamilton completes practice sweep in rain-affected session

2018 Japanese Grand Prix third practice

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Lewis Hamilton completed a sweep of all three practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix by setting the fastest time on a windy Saturday morning at Suzuka.

The final hour of practice was significantly disrupted by a rain shower shortly after the start, which confined drivers to their garages for a significant part of the hour’s running.

When the session resumed a very quick run through the first sector put Hamilton ahead. However championship rival Sebastian Vettel was just a tenth of a second behind him, having been quicker through the other two sectors. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen backed him up in second place.

The session was red-flagged with a few minutes left to run when Nico Hulkenberg crashed in the Esses. He was able to climb out of his Renault which sustained heavy rear end damage in the impact after he ran wide at turn four and spun into the turn five barriers.

Max Verstappen the quickest of the Red Bull drivers, was seven-tenths of a second off Hamilton’s pace. Esteban Ocon, leading the midfielders, was another 0.7 seconds behind.

There was some cheer for Renault as Carlos Sainz Jnr put his car in ninth place. Kevin Magnussen’s Haas completed the top 10.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’29.59913
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1’29.7150.11614
37Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’30.0540.45513
433Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’30.3040.70513
577Valtteri BottasMercedes1’30.4220.82313
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’30.4740.87510
731Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’31.0881.48912
811Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’31.4831.88412
955Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’31.5131.91414
1020Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’31.5211.92213
118Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’31.6362.03714
1216Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’31.7602.16114
1328Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’32.0302.43113
1418Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’32.2012.60214
1527Nico HulkenbergRenault1’32.2242.62512
169Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’32.4422.84310
1714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’32.6083.00914
1835Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’32.6313.03214
192Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’33.0343.43513
2010Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’33.1053.50610

Third practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’29.599

+0.116 Sebastian Vettel – 1’29.715

+0.455 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’30.054

+0.705 Max Verstappen – 1’30.304

+0.823 Valtteri Bottas – 1’30.422

+0.875 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’30.474

+1.489 Esteban Ocon – 1’31.088

+1.884 Sergio Perez – 1’31.483

+1.914 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’31.513

+1.922 Kevin Magnussen – 1’31.521

+2.037 Romain Grosjean – 1’31.636

+2.161 Charles Leclerc – 1’31.760

+2.431 Brendon Hartley – 1’32.030

+2.602 Lance Stroll – 1’32.201

+2.625 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’32.224

+2.843 Marcus Ericsson – 1’32.442

+3.009 Fernando Alonso – 1’32.608

+3.032 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’32.631

+3.435 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’33.034

+3.506 Pierre Gasly – 1’33.105

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’28.6911’28.2171’29.599+1.38269
2Valtteri BottasMercedes1’29.1371’28.6781’30.422+1.74469
3Sebastian VettelFerrari1’29.6851’29.0501’29.715+0.66570
4Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’29.8411’29.2571’30.304+1.04775
5Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’29.3731’29.5131’30.474+1.10169
6Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’29.6271’29.4981’30.054+0.55666
7Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’30.5911’30.0351’31.088+1.05372
8Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’30.8141’30.4401’31.636+1.19668
9Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’31.0731’30.4781’32.442+1.96472
10Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’31.9081’30.5021’32.030+1.52863
11Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’31.2721’30.5101’31.483+0.97369
12Nico HulkenbergRenault1’31.4181’30.6441’32.224+1.5866
13Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’31.0731’30.7951’33.105+2.3140
14Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’31.1001’30.9041’31.513+0.60968
15Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’30.9291’30.9061’31.760+0.85467
16Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’31.2741’30.9561’31.521+0.56566
17Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’32.0341’30.9881’32.608+1.6269
18Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’32.5131’31.0871’32.631+1.54479
19Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’31.5081’31.2151’32.201+0.98673
20Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’31.9811’33.034+1.05345
21Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’32.68330

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2018 Japanese Grand Prix

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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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5 comments on “Hamilton completes practice sweep in rain-affected session”

  1. Well, I guess it is not all that bad then that I failed to accurately set my alarm for the start of the session (and then had to wait for my pc to finish a windows update…).

    Also, seems Renault did rediscover their pace Sainz was speaking about in the round-up. And maybe Wolff was right about the Ferrari’s being turned down before, seem quite a bit closer now.

    1. and then had to wait for my pc to finish a windows update…

      Better check your files, if you got the latest 1809 update, @bosyber

      1. Yeah, good point @phylyp, I used to have the computer set to ask me first, but windows 10 makes that very hard or I would have postponed that update.

        But, my documents seem to still be there, so that’s good!

  2. Ocon is doing a tremendous job…very consistent performance…its a shame that he has no confirmed drive.

  3. Just stay away rain.

Comments are closed.