Mercedes Dominates Suzuka Practice

0:00It's March 28th. This is F1 News today, your AI-powered team coverage. Mercedes took control in the final practice at Suzuka, with Kimi Antonelli dropping the fastest lap of the weekend at 1 minute 29.362 seconds. That put him 0.254 seconds ahead of teammate George Russell, while Ferrari's Charles LeClair trailed by 8-10s and 3rd. Times kept falling hard through the hour, showing Mercedes has real pace heading into qualifying. McLaren's Oscar-Piastry held strong in 4th, but Lando Norris slipped to 6th after losing track time to an energy recovery system glitch. Drivers and teams are buzzing about Mercedes's edge, especially with Antonelli proving he's no fluke in just his second race. Audi impressed 2, Nico Holkenberg's 7th and Gabriel Bortolato 9th, building solid data for the session ahead. Haas Rookie, Oli Bareman, dodged, disaster, saving a spin out of turn 14 after going wide at Spoon Curve.

1:00Qualifying kicks off at 3pm local time, so expect fireworks as the grid shapes up. Mercedes looks locked in, but Suzuka always delivers chaos. Keep it tuned for how qualifying shakes out.