2023-09-23 03:36:00
(Motorsport-Total.com) – Max Verstappen achieved the best time in the third free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka. The Red Bull driver secured first place for the third time in the third session of the weekend. His lead was 0.240 seconds over Lando Norris and 0.288 seconds over Oscar Piastri (both McLaren).
Max Verstappen secured the best time in all three free practice sessions
Verstappen was even slower than McLaren in the first sector (with the famous S-curves), but a little faster in the second sector and significantly faster than his pursuers in the third sector. The bottom line is his third best time in the third training session, but with a downward trend in terms of the lead: “2.5 tenths isn’t a lot by Red Bull standards,” says ORF-Expert Alexander Wurz.
“It will be very, very tight,” says Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko in an interview with ORF. “McLaren is superior to us in the fast corners, we catch up in the slow ones. It’s only Max who can keep up in sector 1.”
“What speaks for us in the race: The second lap, i.e. with used tires, we are significantly better than the rest. I believe that the race will be a match between Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes. And ultimately there is the tire wear “It’s crucial, and as we all know, Ferrari isn’t quite as good at that.”
On the subject:
Result 3. Free training
Info: Live broadcast on TV on Sky (ADVERTISING)
Nothing came following the top 3 for a long time. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez came fourth – albeit 0.737 seconds behind, followed by the two Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc (+0.755) and Carlos Sainz (+0.870) in positions 5 and 6. The Ferraris are particularly “in the first sector “It’s just not fast enough,” Wurz analyzes.
At Mercedes, the trend from Friday continued, namely that the gap to the top is greater than last time in Singapore. Within the team, Lewis Hamilton (7th/+0.892) was 0.346 seconds faster than George Russell (8th).
Incidentally, the latter was no longer able to go on track at the end of the session. Russell had damaged the cover of the right rear wheel during one of his runs, which, according to Mercedes information, required a lengthy repair. However, his participation in qualifying is not in jeopardy.
“Yesterday,” says Mercedes spokesman Bradley Lord in an interview with Sky“Lewis was very dissatisfied with the car. He really struggled with the balance. Today it was better from the first lap and it felt much better for him.”
“George went a bit in the opposite direction, and that was less stable today with the higher track temperatures. But we also know where we can optimize that. We see that the field behind Verstappen and the two McLarens is extremely narrow. Ferrari has “They did their lap a little later than us. I think it’s a very close fight for the second or third row on the starting grid,” says Lord.
Surprising: Alfa Romeo was able to confirm Friday’s solid result. The updates that have already been introduced in Singapore finally seem to have their full effect. Guanyu Zhou (+1.401) finished 10th in the third training session, Valtteri Bottas (+1.432) was eleventh.
Just ahead of the two Alfa Romeos, Fernando Alonso (+1.282) ended up in 9th place. His fast lap didn’t look entirely clean, especially at the chicane. Teammate Lance Stroll only finished 19th, 1.887 seconds behind the best time.
One thing is clear following the free practice sessions: “In Suzuka, the tires degrade very quickly,” explains Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack in an interview with Sky. “It’s very rough, the asphalt is very rough, and with the high temperatures we might see a lot of stops on Sunday.”
Then there are the close time gaps: “The two Red Bulls are a little faster. After that it’s one second to 20th place. Extremely close. So it’s regarding: Can you get the sectors together? What regarding traffic? What regarding driving on tires ? […] It’s really going to be an interesting ride,” predicts Krack before qualifying and the race.
By the way: Nico Hülkenberg, the only German in the field, came 15th, 1.712 seconds behind. He was also around a tenth of a second slower than his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen (12th), but with this result he would at least get into the second qualifying create.
This should be a mere formality for local hero Yuki Tsunoda. The AlphaTauri driver is a real superstar in his home country. Before the session began, he addressed the audience from the podium in which he announced his contract extension for 2024. In training he finished 14th, 1.684 seconds behind, 0.097 seconds ahead of teammate Liam Lawson (17th).
Where can you watch the Japanese Grand Prix on TV?
For hardcore fans, the Formula 1 day ends on the Formula1.de YouTube channel. (Subscribe now for free!) It’s there on Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. the F1 show with host Kevin Scheuren and editor-in-chief Christian Nimmervoll. The two analyze the qualifying, provide voices and reactions that were not seen on TV, and answer questions from the channel members. (Become a Formula1.de channel member on YouTube now!)
How good is Red Bull following the Singapore bankruptcy?
The free practice session in Suzuka ended with a confident best time from Max Verstappen.
to the video section
If you want to watch all sessions live, you can do so on Sky. In addition to qualifying and the race, Sky also shows all free practice sessions in full length. The qualifying begins on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. German time (preliminary reports from 7:30 a.m.), the race on Sunday starts at 7:00 a.m. (preliminary reports from 6:00 a.m.).
Sky is worth watching not only because of the live broadcasts of all sessions and because of the race without commercial breaks, but also because of the top-class team of experts around former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, who, as is well known, is never at a loss to keep things that way to say what he thinks. (ADVERTISEMENT: Be there up close with Sky, from the first free practice session to the award ceremony!)
1695442749
#free #practice #Suzuka #Max #Verstappen #front #McLaren #duo