McLarens fastest in third practice at Suzuka

SUZUKA, Japan - Lando Norris put McLaren top of the timesheets in third practice for the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday with a sizzling lap of one minute 27.965 seconds that bettered Max Verstappens time for pole position last year.

The championship leaders 17th lap was 0.026 seconds quicker than teammate Oscar Piastris best effort with George Russell third fastest for Mercedes ahead of Ferraris Charles Leclerc and world champion Verstappen in the Red Bull.

Grass fires caused by sparks from passing cars triggered two of the four red-flag stoppages in Fridays second practice and, despite preventative measures, the third session was less than seven minutes old when another fire broke out.

The session continued uninterrupted until another fire broke out near the end, curtailing it by six minutes.

After Fridays second practice was so heavily disrupted, Verstappen spent the much of the session on hard tyres gathering data for the race before going out for a quick lap on softs.

It was good enough to put him ahead of seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton in the other Ferrari and the best of the midfield drivers, Alex Albon for Williams and Alpines Pierre Gasly in seventh and eighth positions.

Japans Yuki Tsunoda continued to impress on his first weekend in the Red Bull after replacing Liam Lawson last week and posted the ninth-fastest time to stay on track for a bid at making the final qualifying session later on Saturday.

Lawson was again outperformed by his Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar, who was 10th fastest, with the New Zealander 12th on the timesheets behind Carlos Sainz in the second Williams.

The Alpine team spent the night putting Jack Doohans car back together after his high-speed crash on Friday and the Australian was 14th fastest behind Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli