Mercedes F1 driver Kimi Antonelli has headed team-mate George Russell in final practice at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Russell was unable to top Antonelli’s final quarter lap in the W17 as Mercedes heads to qualifying as the clear favourites, leading FP3 by a huge margin over its Ferrari and McLaren challengers.
The first proper push laps saw the Ferraris take an early lead before Antonelli took command on his first soft-tyre lap, clocking a 1m30.418s which was still three tenths away from Oscar Piastri’s FP2 topping effort on Friday.
Antonelli was also the first driver to breach the 1m30 barrier with a 1m29.929s, showing a first real glimpse of Mercedes’ enduring dominance after playing hide and seek on Friday.
Russell’s reply was a 1m19.918s, before Antonelli banged in a 1m29.392s with 18 minutes left on the clock, Mercedes leading all three sectors. Russell’s reply was a quarter of a second slower as the Silver Arrows once again head into qualifying as the clear frontrunners.
Ferrari’s best effort was a 1m.20.299s from Leclerc, who backed off on his final hotlap which made his eight-tenth gap to Antonelli bigger than it should have been. Piastri was fourth, one second in arrears, narrowly ahead of the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton.
Fresh from a crippling double DNS in Shanghai, there was more power unit trouble for McLaren as the team was forced to replace Lando Norris’ electric motor, with the team unsure if the world champion would be able to make it out in FP3 at all. But Norris did eventually emerge in the final half of the session, initially holding seventh before his final effort saw him get closer to Piastri and Hamilton in sixth.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Nico Hulkenberg’s seventh spot was a surprise, although the German’s 1.3s deficit to the front suggested his result was at least as much down to other frontrunners and midfielders struggling rather than Audi particularly excelling.
That was certainly the case for four-time world champion Max Verstappen, who was looking for improvements following a horrendous Friday. And while Red Bull has been known for its impressive Friday-to-Saturday recoveries, its usual overnight set-up work didn’t appear to pay off this time as the Dutchman continued to suffer from both oversteer and understeer – a driver’s nightmare.
Verstappen reported he was lacking a “massive” lack of front grip in high-speed corners as well as encountering “horrendous downshifts”, setting an distinctly unimpressive 1m30.910s to go eighth.
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10, over 1.6 seconds behind Antonelli.
Other than the inevitable chagrin triggered by impeding incidents, the session was completed without major dramas, although there was one hair-raising spin for Oliver Bearman coming out of Spoon, with Russell complimenting the Haas driver on his “good save”.
On the bottom of the timesheets Cadillac duo Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez conceded 3.1 seconds as the veteran duo tried to squeeze more laptime out of the new team’s first upgrade package. Behind them, Aston Martin propped up the order with a 4.1s deficit for Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso as they continued their conservative run programme with the team’s plagued Honda engines.
Qualifying for F1’s third grand prix of 2026 continues at 3pm local time.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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