Lando Norris in action© AFP
The leader of the Lando Norris championship was the fastest before McLaren’s teammate Oscar Piastri, during the final training on Saturday for the Japanese Grand Prix, because the small fire on the track again disturbed the session. British Norris, who was also the fastest during the first training on Friday, timed the fastest round of 1 min 27.965sec to direct the 0.026sec Piastria. Norris seeks his second Grand Prix victory of the season after triumphed at the opening in Australia and finished second behind Piastri in China. Piastri won in Shanghai in a dominant start of the campaign for McLaren.
George Russell of Mercedes was the fastest third in Suzuka in front of Charles Leclerc de Ferrari, Max Verstappen de Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton de Ferrari.
The session was again interrupted by track fires while the sparks of the cars ignited the grass in dry conditions.
The rain was scheduled for Sunday race.
A small fire broke out about 10 minutes after the session and another highlighted the red flags for the second time in the last minutes.
The fires also caused the second training on Friday twice.
Red Bull Yuki Tsunoda was the faster ninth of his first weekend for the team after replacing Liam Lawson.
Tsunoda from Japan, who took a start to the weekend, said on the team’s radio that he was “generally very happy” from his car.
Jack Doohan of Alpine finished 14th, after having crashed sharply during the second training on Friday.
The Australian car was seriously damaged when he broke a barrier, but his team managed to repair it in time for the session on Saturday.
Gabriel Bortoleto de Sauber had a great fear at the end of the session when he told his team that something had broken on his tire and that he had shot the grass.
The Brazilian seemed seriously shaken but he avoided an accident and finished 17th faster. The qualifications are later on Saturday.
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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