---
title: "Bottas tops FP3 despite finding the barriers"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/10/07/bottas-tops-fp3-despite-finding-barriers/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Kyran Gibbons"
section: "F1 News"
published: "2017-10-07T04:24:41Z"
modified: "2017-10-07T04:24:41Z"
---

# Bottas tops FP3 despite finding the barriers

Mercedes finished 1-2 in the final practice session ahead of the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas leading Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas’ session was, however, curtailed when he damaged his car after hitting the wall on the exit of Spoon Curve.

Contrary to forecasts, the rain that effectively rendered FP2 useless yesterday cleared ahead of the final practice session.

However, FP3 was instead truncated by two red flag periods. 20 minutes into the session, Bottas ran wide on the exit of Spoon Curve. Dragged onto the grass via the astro-turf lining the corner exit, Bottas grazed the wall several times and damaged his rear-right wheel hub as will as his front wing, bargeboards and the floor.

With the entire right-rear corner of Bottas’ car requiring repair, the incident marked a premature end to his session. He now enters qualifying with significantly limited mileage combined with a five-place grid penalty for his prior gearbox change.

Just four minutes after the resumption of the session, Kimi Raikkonen was the next driver to find the barriers. A snap of oversteer at Degner 2 launched the Ferrari into the gravel trap. Raikkonen was then rendered a passenger en route to the wall.

Sebastian Vettel had suffered an almost identical slide earlier in the session. On that occasion, Vettel recognised the issue earlier, catching the slide and minimising the damage to a comparatively uneventful trip through the gravel.

Ironically, the Raikkonen-induced red flag compromised Vettel, who had just fitted the super-soft tyre for a qualifying simulation. The Red Bull duo was similarly wrong-footed.

By the end of the session, the timesheet reflected the awkward nature of the session.

Bottas retained top spot with the benchmark of 1m29.055s set in the opening third of the session. Hamilton finished second; a slender 0.014 seconds away from top spot. Neither Mercedes completed a qualifying simulation run on the super-soft tyre.

Vettel finished third for Ferrari. While he completed laps on the softest compound available, the team appeared to focus on long run performance. Vettel set his fastest time of 1m29.379s on a run in which he completed five laps overall, carrying more fuel than he would in a true qualifying run.

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo ended the session fourth and fifth respectively. With Verstappen’s super-soft benchmark a full eight tenths adrift of Bottas’ best on the soft rubber, Red Bull has time to find before qualifying.

Verstappen and Ricciardo ran with alternate downforce settings in FP3 and the team has not yet refined their final qualifying set-up.

Esteban Ocon impressed with sixth for Force India. He finished just one tenth adrift of Ricciardo. Ocon’s team-mate Sergio Perez ended the session ninth.

Both Renault’s also entered the top ten, with Nico Hulkenberg again appearing fast over one-lap in seventh spot. Jolyon Palmer has five tenths to find in order to match his team-mate, but was still quick enough to end practice in 10th.

After his excursion, Raikkonen ended FP3 at the foot of the timesheet having not posted a representative time before his accident.