Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver and leader of the Formula 1 World Championship, completed a sweep of the practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix, with McLaren being his closest competitor and looking like a main rival on Saturday. The 25-year-old Dutchman, who was the fastest in both practice sessions on Friday after bouncing back from a defeat in Singapore the previous Sunday, recorded the best time at Suzuka of one minute and 30.267 seconds on soft tires.
Lando Norris from McLaren finished second, 0.240 seconds off the top time in the final session before qualifying, while his Australian teammate Oscar Piastri placed third. Red Bull's Sergio Pérez took fourth place, another half a second behind.
Verstappen, who won in Japan after starting from pole position last year, leads Pérez by 151 points after 15 of the 22 races and could secure his third title in the next race in Qatar. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who appeared to be Red Bull's closest competitors the previous day, finished fifth and sixth, while Mercedes' duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell placed seventh and eighth. Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso came in ninth, and Alfa Romeo's Guanyu Zhou rounded out the top ten.
