Fires again strike Japanese GP practice as Norris finds lap time spark

Lando Norris edged McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in a final practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix that again blighted by two track-side fires.

The FIA had vowed to take pre-emptive measures to ensure there would be no repeat of the two fires that took place during FP2. But despite cutting the grass as short as possible, and dampening it throughout, a further two fires took place in FP3.

The second red flag occurred with seven minutes remaining, leading to the FIA opting not to restart the session, denying all the drivers to conduct a practice start afterwards.

With the session halted it was Norris who finished with the leading time of 1:27.965s - the fastest lap of the weekend to date - just 0.026s ahead of Piastri, reversing the order from the conclusion of second practice. 

Mercedes' George Russell was just over a tenth off the pace to lie third, and seemingly the closest challenger to the McLarens at this stage.

Fire! Fire!

After the four red flags in FP2 that accounted for 36 minutes in delays during the hour-long session, there was naturally an urgency from all the teams to get as much running under their belts as possible in the final FP3 session.

One of those, in particular, was Alpine's Jack Doohan who suffered a brutal crash in the opening minutes of FP2 that destroyed the left-hand side of his car. It was later diagnosed that Piastri had kept his DRS open on approach to the high-speed Turn 1.

Doohan was one of the first cars on track, only to blot his copybook early by running wide onto the gravel at the second Degner.

Within minutes of the session starting, however, it was red-flagged as another trackside fire took hold at the final chicane, halting running for eight minutes, despite the FIA measures to deal with the prospect of a repeat of such incidents.

At that stage, Leclerc was the leading runner with a lap of 1:29.107s, followed closely by Hamilton.

Given the lack of running in FP2, especially as that session predominantly focuses on lung runs, a mix of programmes across the teams unfolded as many attempted to make up for the lost ground.

At the midway point, Mercedes bolted a set of softs onto Russell's Mercedes, and the Briton set the new leading lap of 1:28.385s.

With 15 minutes remaining, the leading six times - Russell, Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, Piastri, Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda, and Norris - were all set on the soft tyres, whilst those behind them were on a mix of predominantly medium, as well as, hard compound rubber.

Verstappen then entered the soft-tyre fray with a lap exactly three-tenths of a second slower than Russell to slot into fourth.

Over the closing stages, and with soft-tyre, low-fuel running the order of the day, Norris finally hooked up a lap - after previously making minor errors here and there throughout the session - to set the best lap of 1:27.965s.

Russell finished 0.112s adrift, followed by Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton, albeit with the latter trio all around half-a-second off the pace.

Williams' Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly in his Red Bull were in close attendance, followed by Tsunoda, eight-tenths down overall, and three-tenths behind Verstappen, with Isack Hadjar in his Racing Bulls completing the top 10.

Doohan was at least a respectable 14th, 1.4s adrift, with Stake's Nico Hulkenberg slowest of all, 2.656s down.