McLaren maintains fastest times in final practice at Suzuka | Japanese Grand Prix FP3 Results

The McLaren drivers are looking strong ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend with Lando Norris topping FP1 and Oscar Piastri leading free practice 2. Free practice 2 saw four different red flags interrupt the session. Two incidents were attributed to cars going off the track with Jack Doohan having a very high speed crash early on in the session and Fernando Alonso dipping his Aston Martin into the gravel. The two other red flags were caused by grass fires, something we saw happen during the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix. The race director sought ways overnight to prevent these incidents from happening again to mitigate the risk of interruptions during the final two days of the weekend. See what happened in the final free practice session:

• Jack Doohan's mechanics worked through the night, breaking curfew to repair his car after a high-speed crash during FP2 left the rookie flustered. Thankfully, the team was able to get his car ready for the green flag and Jack was medically cleared to drive
• The Suzuka track staff worked through the night to cut the grass and to dampen it ahead of FP3 in an effort to avoid more grass fires. Unfortunately, a red flag was required soon after the session began to fight the first fire
• Isack Hadjar reported a cockpit issue over his radio, but after Team Principal Laurent Mekies checked in the young French driver was back out without hesitation. It's unclear what the issue was
• Carlos Sainz reported the car was snapping at turn 6 as the Williams engineers worked to help him solve the issue. Wind is playing a major part in this weekend's grand prix and all teams are trying to parse wind gusts from set up issues
• Oscar Piastri received a summons from the FIA stewards after parking his car near pit exit. The incident will be reviewed after the session and is not expected to incur a race-altering penalty
• Gabriel Bortaleto almost lost the car in the 130R. The incident triggered another grass fire and red flagged the session. With the flag falling at just over 6 minutes left, drivers were sitting in the pits to close the session

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Japanese Grand Prix FP3 Results

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