Nico Rosberg outpaces Lewis Hamilton in Japanese GP practice

Championship leader Nico Rosberg outpaced his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in a practice session held on Friday, prior to the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

The German was one quarter of a second faster than Hamilton in the morning, before his best lap of one minute and 32.350 seconds in the day's second session, saw him finish 0.072 seconds clear of his Mercedes team-mate.

Rosberg has been on pole at Suzuka in each of the past 2 seasons and failed to convert either into a win, with Hamilton taking the checkered flag on both occasions.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was the closest to them, 0.323 seconds slower than Rosberg, with Max Verstappen the only other driver within one second of the Mercedes pair, while Sebastian Fettel finished in 5th.

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