Championship leader Nico Rosberg completed a practice treble over Lewis Hamilton to ramp up the pressure on his title rival ahead of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Rosberg, who leads Hamilton by 23 points in the championship race with only five rounds remaining, posted a best lap of one minute and 32.092 seconds at an overcast Suzuka Circuit on Saturday morning.

Hamilton, who failed to set a competitive lap on the soft tyre compound – the fastest available this weekend – finished only seventh.

The 31-year-old Briton is bidding for a hat-trick of consecutive victories in Japan, but he was more than one second adrift of his Mercedes team-mate on Saturday morning.

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