Japanese GP – Free Practice 3: Button and McLaren OK, Senna K.O

As the track temperature is announced to be 33°C, the drivers rush onto the track to perform an installation lap and system check before returning to the pits without starting the clock. On the radio, Jenson Button reports that there is a lot of grip on the track, even if the drivers don’t seem too eager to return. Suzuka is thus enveloped in silence, which Pastor Maldonado is the first to break after ten minutes have passed: the Williams driver and his team have work waiting for them after a disastrous first day of testing.

The Venezuelan sets the first benchmark time at 1’41”979, which Jerome d’Ambrosio improves by eight-tenths before Perez, Buemi, and then Alguersuari take turns leading the timesheet, each around the 1’36 mark, on medium tires.

After nearly a quarter of an hour spent in his garage, Jenson Button, who recorded the best time in each of Friday’s sessions, is the first of the top drivers to register a timed lap with, logically, the fastest time, 1’33”493 for the Briton. In his first flying lap, Sebastian Vettel settles for the seventh fastest time at 1’37”114. The Red Bull driver improves on the following lap, under the 1’34 mark, while his title rival improves to 1’33”044. Mark Webber, meanwhile, is still in his garage as his team works on his car, while Lewis Hamilton returns to the pits after a first lap that places him in 15th position.

But the drivers are quickly halted in their tracks when the red flag is waved following Bruno Senna’s off-track excursion at the exit of Spoon. The Brazilian loses control of his Lotus Renault GP on the exit curb, sends his car, front wing first, into the tire wall before returning to the track with the left front wheel resting on the nose.

Despite the red flag, the minutes tick by and halfway through the session, only 18 drivers have set a time. Jenson Button leads the standings ahead of Vettel, Schumacher, Rosberg, Petrov, Sutil, Kobayashi, Senna, Buemi, and Perez. Mark Webber and the Ferrari drivers are among those who still have not clocked a timed lap.

The track is reopened with only 27 minutes of practice remaining. Paul di Resta is the first to head out, on medium tires with white sidewalls. In his first flying lap, Fernando Alonso has to lift off approaching the 130R where Vitantonio Liuzzi has parked his HRT, seemingly due to another breakdown: the Italian has completed only 12 laps in total since the beginning of the weekend.

In the next lap, the Ferrari driver moves up to second place as Nico Rosberg, who set the fastest intermediate times in the last two sectors, takes the best time, the first under a minute 32 in this session, likely on soft tires. The German is ahead of Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, and Michael Schumacher.

Lewis Hamilton sets the fastest time in the first sector but falters in the second, while Mark Webber, with DRS open in the 130R, slides into 3rd place in the provisional ranking before Fernando Alonso reclaims his position by setting the fastest time in the 3rd sector, also with DRS open in the 130R.

Michael Schumacher moves to the top of the timesheet on soft tires with a time of 1’32”725, but then Jenson Button also goes out on soft yellow-walled tires and logically takes the fastest time after being the quickest in all three sectors: 1’31”255 for the McLaren driver, his best time of the weekend.

10 minutes from the checkered flag, the Toro Rosso drivers, a bit more discreet than yesterday for the moment, are the only drivers on track, on soft tires, while the rest of the pack is preparing to perform a final performance stint, although Jenson Button does not seem likely to return to the track. Lewis Hamilton sets off for his final stint but fails, in his first attempt, falling half a second behind his teammate, while Alonso is a full second behind at the end of his fast lap.

The Red Bull drivers only put on soft tires three minutes before the checkered flag, while Lewis Hamilton himself does not seem able to compete with his teammate. Vettel finishes in third place, almost a second behind, while Webber has to settle for the fifth fastest time: the RB7, however, seems to be slightly more loaded with fuel than its rivals.

The McLaren drivers remain the only ones to have gone under the 1:32 mark in this session, which was interrupted for about ten minutes by a red flag. Jenson Button seems well-positioned to challenge Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull for the pole position this afternoon, provided the Austrian team hasn’t been holding back up to this point.

Free Practice 3 Standings for the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix