Nico Rosberg led the way for the final practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton in second 0.982 behind, after a late crash in the session. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished the session in third place.
Whilst all of the talk around the session surrounded Sebastian Vettel leaving Red Bull at the end of 2014, the German ended the session in 15th after a car issue prevented the quadruple world champion from setting a fast time on the option tyres. Vettel’s replacement for 2015, Daniil Kvyat was an impressive 9th in his Toro Rosso.
Behind Alonso came the two Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, then the first of the Red Bull’s of Daniel Ricciardo in 6th. Kevin Magnussen who could very much be driving for his career only in his first season of F1 was 7th, just finishing ahead of Jean-Eric Vernge in 8th, Kyat 9th and the second McLaren of Jenson Button rounding out the top ten.
In quite a quiet session, Lewis Hamilton was not the only man to make a mistake into turn one. Both Lotuses of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean went wide at the tricky first corner, with both men finishing the session in 16th and 17th respectively.
Hamilton was unable to set a qualifying style run on the option tyre which explains the abnormally large gap between himself and Rosberg.
Kimi Raikkonen once again suffered problems with his Ferrari and had to sit out most of the session, so could not get a qualifying style run in at the end. The Finn finishing the session in 12th.
But whilst Mercedes are leaps and bounds ahead of the rest, will a small crash from Lewis Hamilton cost him the chance to build on his new found world championship lead? We will soon find out.
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps | |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:33.228 | 14 | ||
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:34.210 | 0.982 | 10 | |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:34.439 | 1.211 | 12 | |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:34.564 | 1.336 | 12 | |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:35.061 | 1.833 | 16 | |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:35.086 | 1.858 | 13 | |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 1:35.251 | 2.023 | 16 | |
| 8 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:35.494 | 2.266 | 8 | |
| 9 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:35.538 | 2.310 | 17 | |
| 10 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:35.549 | 2.321 | 16 | |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:35.732 | 2.504 | 15 | |
| 12 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:35.995 | 2.767 | 5 | |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:36.365 | 3.137 | 8 | |
| 14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 1:36.407 | 3.179 | 22 | |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:36.460 | 3.232 | 6 | |
| 16 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:36.558 | 3.330 | 19 | |
| 17 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:36.617 | 3.389 | 12 | |
| 18 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 1:36.626 | 3.398 | 20 | |
| 19 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 1:37.367 | 4.139 | 12 | |
| 20 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 1:37.883 | 4.655 | 17 | |
| 21 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 1:38.102 | 4.874 | 15 | |
| 22 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 1:38.784 | 5.556 | 12 |
