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Formula 1
Australian GP
2014 Australian Grand Prix Sunday - Australian Grand Prix
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Force India thinks Perez might yet get into the points, telling him to "push, push, push, push." The Mexican is 11th and trimming a little from Kvyat but still 11.3s off with six laps to go.
Bottas is right under the rear wing of the Force India now in the fight for sixth.
He has 1.1s on Magnussen with Button 4.3s further back.
Personal best for Ricciardo - struggle, what struggle?
Ferrari gives Alonso some encouragement too, saying Ricciardo is "slowing everybody down" and is only 10s ahead in second.
Alonso's pace is very, very strong - he's the quickest of the non-Rosbergs.
"Let's try to get Ricciardo," McLaren tells Magnussen, "he is struggling."
Ricciardo steadies the ship somewhat after a tricky couple of laps, holding his gap to Magnussen to about 1.2s. But he's still 0.4s slower than Button.
Bottas is almost within DRS range of Hulkenberg now in the fight for sixth. We'll bang that drum again - what might have been, eh?
Raikkonen has now escaped from one Toro Rosso and caught the other. Kvyat is disappearing in his mirrors but he's right on Vergne.
Massive difference in laptime for Ricciardo/Magnussen and the chasing Button next time around - Button 1.7s quicker! He's less than 4s behind the pair now.
Force India warns Hulkenberg that Bottas is likely to be closing in on him soon.
Button is running strongly right now, quicker than both Ricciardo and Magnussen ahead of him - and by almost a second on that lap, too.
Is he mounting a late charge?
Is he mounting a late charge?
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Maldonado says Lotus can be encouraged to have got as far as it did:
"For sure it's something positive, both cars were running for quite long during the race and that's quite important, we have not been able to put 20 laps together in the past.
"This team in the past showed the potential we had. For sure we have problems but we are not the only one."
"For sure it's something positive, both cars were running for quite long during the race and that's quite important, we have not been able to put 20 laps together in the past.
"This team in the past showed the potential we had. For sure we have problems but we are not the only one."
Vergne fishtails massively through the final corner and Bottas breezes into seventh. Next up: Hulkenberg.
McLaren warns Magnussen that Button could be on him later, telling the rookie to protect his rear tyres as "we could be racing Jenson at the end." There's currently 6s between the McLarens.
Button asks McLaren: "does Ricciardo have to save fuel?" Team replies: "we don't think so."
Same problem for both Lotuses, Grosjean also told "we lost MGU-K".
The Raikkonen/Kvyat battle for ninth has fizzled a little, 1.3s between them now.
It's all over for Lotus today, Grosjean pulls up and retires from 12th.
Button's picked up his pace a bit, as has Alonso 4.7s behind. It might be too late for the McLaren to join in the battle for second though.
Bottas has been hassling Vergne for seventh for a couple of laps now and looks to the outside briefly into Turn 3 but it's not a serious attack. He's now very close through Turn 9.
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A very chilled radio message to Alonso in fifth place:
"OK Fernando, no threat from behind. We stay focused. It's a battle of reliability as well so we look after everything."
"OK Fernando, no threat from behind. We stay focused. It's a battle of reliability as well so we look after everything."
Magnussen is back within DRS range of Ricciardo. Brilliant scrap this.
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Rosberg is asked to pick up the pace by 0.4s per lap "just to get a nice safety car window".
New instruction to Vergne: "Watch for Bottas behind. And keep him behind."
Even though Raikkonen has picked up his lap times, Kvyat is still within 0.4s.
Chilton pits, but it's a scheduled stop rather than a problem.
Ricciardo responds to the Magnussen pressure with his personal best lap of the race and the gap is up to 1.2s.
Mercedes replies: "we're completely happy Nico, just stay off the kerbs."
Rosberg asks Mercedes: "is there nothing else I can do for reliability?"
No sign of Magnussen holding back. He's pushing hard behind Ricciardo. This fight is very much on.
Raikkonen does his best lap of the race, a 1m33.766s, in response to Kvyat, but isn't shaking the rookie off yet.
Magnussen has got within a second of Ricciardo now, Button is dropping back a bit.
Kvyat is closing in on Raikkonen for ninth, 0.4s behind the Ferrari and lapping quicker.
"You're racing Kevin for third place," McLaren tells Button. There's 5.8s between them.
Bottas is the quickest of the lead group at the moment, though we'd imagine Rosberg's first full flying lap on the new tyres to be pretty rapid.
Williams tells Bottas to save his tyres for now as the team expects other cars to run into Pirelli trouble further into the stint.
Those stops have put Magnussen right on Ricciardo's tail again. Button is just over 5s back with a good lead over Alonso.
Race order on lap 39 out of 57 with leaders' final pitstops done:
1 Rosberg
2 Ricciardo
3 Magnussen
4 Button
5 Alonso
6 Hulkenberg
7 Vergne
8 Bottas
9 Raikkonen
10 Kvyat
11 Perez
12 Grosjean
13 Sutil
14 Gutierrez
15 Chilton
1 Rosberg
2 Ricciardo
3 Magnussen
4 Button
5 Alonso
6 Hulkenberg
7 Vergne
8 Bottas
9 Raikkonen
10 Kvyat
11 Perez
12 Grosjean
13 Sutil
14 Gutierrez
15 Chilton
By: Matt Beer, Edd Straw, Ben Anderson, Jonathan Noble, Scott Mitchell, Andrew van Leeuwen
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