Practice 3 Report - Norris tops session

Oscar Piastri, Japanese GP 2025
© McLaren

Lando Norris led a McLaren one-two in the final practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, setting the pace ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri as the session was twice interrupted by grass fires.

Norris clocked a 1m27.965s lap late in FP3 to edge Piastri by just 0.026s. The British driver overcame a pair of scrappy laps—both of which were aborted due to running slightly wide at Degner 2—before stringing together a clean final attempt. While his best first sector remained unbeaten, Norris made up ground in the latter parts of the lap to claim top spot.

Oscar Piastri had earlier gone fastest with a time in the 1m28s range, briefly heading the order as the session intensified. George Russell also featured prominently, topping the session momentarily before being displaced by the McLaren drivers. Russell ultimately ended the session third, just ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Max Verstappen struggled for balance in his Red Bull, labeling the car “undriveable” through some corners. His session was hampered by an initial off-pace run on soft tyres and a need to tweak differential settings. A later attempt saw him improve to fifth, narrowly ahead of new Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

The session was notably disrupted by two red flags caused by grass fires, both near high-speed areas. The first stoppage occurred just six minutes in, despite overnight efforts to prevent such incidents after similar flare-ups in previous years. The second came near the end of the session after Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto ran wide at 130R and narrowly avoided a major crash. The grass ignited shortly after, bringing FP3 to a premature end.

Lewis Hamilton slotted into sixth place, followed by Alex Albon in seventh. Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, and rookie Isack Hadjar rounded out the top ten. Carlos Sainz placed 11th after a slide at Turn 6 sent him off-track.

Both Verstappen and Piastri were placed under investigation post-session for potentially breaching pitlane procedure guidelines during practice starts.

With qualifying ahead, McLaren’s strong performance has thrown down a challenge to Red Bull and Ferrari, especially at a circuit typically suiting high-downforce cars. The team will be hoping to convert their strong practice form into a competitive qualifying showing.