Kimi Antonelli continues to carry the momentum of his maiden F1 win from China at the Japanese Grand Prix after outpacing Mercedes team-mate George Russell in the final practice session before Qualifying at Suzuka.
After McLaren had caught the eye by topping the timesheet with Oscar Piastri on Friday, Mercedes reasserted their expected superiority over the field on Saturday morning – but this time to a dominant degree.
And it was Antonelli, and not early championship leader Russell, who was the quicker of the two Silver Arrows again with the 19-year-old’s impressive benchmark time of 1:29.362 enough to put him 0.254s clear of his more-experienced British team-mate.
“On the evidence we have seen so far, it looks like an intra-Mercedes battle for pole,” said Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok.
“Antonelli has looked really good and so far, you’d have to say heading into qualifying, he’s got to be the favourite.”
Kimi Antonelli is chasing his second successive pole position
Mercedes have taken both pole positions and both race victories so far in F1’s new era of rules and their dominance was especially pronounced on Saturday morning around the acrobatic Suzuka layout.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc restored Ferrari to third place after a tricky Friday for the team but he was 0.867s back on Antonelli. Everyone else was one second or more off the pace.
McLaren’s Piastri slipped to fourth, with Lewis Hamilton fifth in the second Ferrari. Next came world champion Lando Norris, whose compromised start to the weekend continued after more unreliability from his car’s Mercedes power unit forced another ERS battery pack change in his McLaren.
McLaren had feared it was “unlikely” that Norris would get out in the session at all, but a swift change of ERS unit saw Norris take to the track for he final 26 minutes of action – eventually finishing sixth fastest, 0.2s behind team-mate Piastri.
But the Briton is already on his third energy store of the season in as many race weekends – the use of one more will trigger an automatic grid penalty.
Underlining Mercedes’ comfortable pace advantage at the front, the rest of F1’s ‘big four’ ended the session far closer on pace to the Audi team, who impressed to take seventh with Nico Hulkenberg and ninth with Gabriel Bortoleto.
Indeed, the quickest Audi finished ahead of the quickest Red Bull, whose struggles with the RB22 continued.
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Max Verstappen struggles with his Red Bull continue during Practice three at the Japanese Grand Priz.
Max Verstappen finishing a whopping 1.5s off the pace in eighth place and complained about his car’s gear shifts over team radio. Isack Hadjar was 11th, one place behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
More to follow…
Sky Sports F1’s Japanese GP schedule
Saturday March 28
5am: Japanese GP Qualifying build-up*
6am: JAPANESE GP QUALIFYING*
8am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday March 29
4.30am: Japanese GP build-up – Grand Prix Sunday*
6am: THE JAPANESE GRAND PRIX*
8am: Japanese GP reaction – Chequered Flag*
9am: Ted’s Notebook*
*Also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is at the iconic Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
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