Japanese GP – Hamilton Fastest Under Overcast Conditions in FP3

While the tyre selection for this weekend is Medium, Soft and Supersoft tyres the majority of the cars on track were using Supersoft tyres. The session started under very cloudy and humid conditions. The air temperature was 25 degrees C and the track temperature was 27 degrees C. By the end of the session the track had heated up to 30 degrees C at the Japanese GP.

Lewis Hamilton Gets Fastest Lap Again at Japanese GP

The Timesheet

Lewis Hamilton finished on top of the leader board for the third consecutive time this weekend, putting in a 1:29.599s lap. This was a significantly slower lap than his two Friday hot laps, as they both were in the 1:28-second range. The track conditions led to slower lap times. Hamilton drove for 13 laps. Behind him on the leaderboard was Sebastian Vettel. Vettel put in a lap +0.116s slower,  Kimi Raikkonen in third place was another +0.455s back.

FP3 Slip Ups

Early in the session many cars backed down when rain started to fall. This period of rain was very short with cars heading back out minutes later. Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen had a scare when he went drifting off track, only barely avoiding the barriers.

The session ended with a bang when Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg lost control out of turn 6, slamming into the barriers. This caused the final two minutes of the session to be red flagged. Renault might have to make a miracle happen if they want a good result out of Qualifying, which is set to happen only two hours after FP3.