After rain-hit sessions yesterday when teams restricted their running, plus a curiously off-the-pace showing last weekend in Singapore, Mercedes was back on the top at Suzuka.
Rosberg clocked 1 minute, 33.995 seconds, three-tenths of any second faster than world champion and championship leader Hamilton. Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo was third.
Rain hit both practice sessions yesterday, forcing teams to accomplish high number of laps in today’s 60-minute session to ready setting for both qualifying and race.
Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was fourth and then teammate Felipe Massa. Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen was sixth, before Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen.
Raikonnen’s Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel, who won last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, was eighth.
Lotus driver Romain Grosjean and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr rounded out your top 10.
Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat, who had previously been fastest in yesterday’s second practice, ran wide in the Spoon as well as the Degner curves and ended the session 14th, 1.7 seconds slower than Red Bull teammate Ricciardo.
 — Mercedes returned to its dominant best by setting the easiest times in today’s (Sept 26) pre-qualifying practice session ...){kind=link}