P1racenews AI automatic summary:
F1 Japanese GP: Verstappen heads Perez in final practice
On a brighter and slightly warmer day than Friday, Verstappen took the lead at the start of the pitlane and did a long first stint on medium tires, setting the initial benchmark time at 1m30.265s before being surpassed by Hamilton’s fast run on soft tires. Hamilton held the top spot for a significant portion of the session, with several incidents on track including Magnussen going off and Ricciardo spinning. Teams focused on gathering long-run data after FP2 was canceled on Friday, with Hamilton’s time remaining the benchmark well into the session. Russell eventually overtook Hamilton with a 1m29.918s lap, followed by Verstappen setting a 1m29.563s lap time. Perez also moved up to second place, while Alonso and Norris secured top positions for Aston Martin and McLaren. Leclerc from Ferrari lagged behind in tenth place.
