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Formula 1 Brazilian GP

Brazilian GP final practice and qualifying

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1 Vettel, 2 Hamilton, 3 Bottas, 4 Raikkonen, 5 Verstappen, 6 Ricciardo, 7 Magnussen, 8 Grosjean, 9 Gasly, 10 Leclerc.
Checkered flag
Chequered flag - Vettel fastest from Hamilton in FP3.
Radio Comms
"Cool the brakes, cool the brakes - quick," urges Vettel as he pulls into the pits.
Perez makes a sweary grumble about track position, so you'd have to think he caught some traffic. He's currently 19th fastest.
Three minutes left in FP3 and it looks like the qualifying simulation excitement has passed. Vettel, Hamilton, Bottas, Raikkonen is how the Ferrari v Mercedes battle shakes out.
Radio Comms
Verstappen is told to cool the tyres, but he reports that his tyres feel cold on the front and he's lacking grip.
This has been a decent session for Haas, which has locked out what would be the Class B front row if they can repeat this 7-8 performance in qualifying. Gasly and Leclerc are now the nearest challengers.
Ocon sneaks into the top 10 in the Force India.
Verstappen goes fifth to become the fastest Red Bull, but he's still 0.7s off the pace.
Raikkonen is the latest driver to miss an apex, although unlike Hamilton he got his error out of the way at the first corner, meaning he can back off sooner to protect his tyres for another go.
Radio Comms
"I don't know why you keep asking me to go rearward on brake bias, it's too much," says Leclerc.
Ricciardo's latest improvement puts him fifth, eight tenths down. It doesn't look like we'll have another three-team fight for pole this weekend.
Hamilton was just over a tenth down at the end of the second sector, but then runs wide at Juncao and bails out of the lap.
Radio Comms
Hamilton reported that his tyre pressures weren't right for that previous attempt that he backed out of, but he's having another go now and has put in a personal best first sector.
Leclerc goes eighth in the Sauber.
Edd Straw
The Mercedes rear end continues to be a bit lively on both cars is also reacting to the bumps a fair bit.
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Grosjean moves up to sixth, the first to improve in the rest of the pack.
Radio Comms
Hamilton says he "might as well do another lap", so he stays out, but slows almost immediately at the start of that lap.
Radio Comms
Hamilton is told that he was fastest through the middle sector, losing nearly two tenths in sector one, and two tenths in the final sector. The team adds "you're looking good in the corners", which could be a subtle way of suggesting that Mercedes will be in the game when it turns its engine up.
Hamilton improves, but he finishes the lap still two tenths slower than Vettel.
Hamilton's car is still puffing out smoke occasionally on this lap.
Hamilton leaves the pits on new supersofts, looking to take advantage of there being just three other cars out at the moment. Make that two, as Vettel has pitted now.
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Pretty quiet on track at the moment, just over 15 minutes to go.
An improvement for Sainz on softs that have 11 laps on them. He's only 16th at the moment.
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1 Vettel, 2 Bottas, 3 Raikkonen, 4 Hamilton, 5 Ricciardo, 6 Verstappen, 7 Leclerc, 8 Grosjean, 9 Magnussen, 10 Gasly.
Stopwatch
Now Vettel goes fastest on new supersofts with a 1m07.948s. Bottas now slots into second.
Radio Comms
Confusion at Toro Rosso - as Gasly spots a stopped Red Bull on the big screens. Toro Rosso can't see anything on its GPS map, and then realises "it was a replay from yesterday. No, from Mexico, actually".
Stopwatch
Improvements for Raikkonen and Hamilton, and it's the Ferrari that is quickest with a 1m08.490s.
Radio Comms
Vandoorne reports that he thinks he has hit a bird on track. McLaren says it looks like he avoided it, and TV replays are... inconclusive. The bird certainly knew about it - let's hope it was a near-miss.
Information
1 Vettel, 2 Hamilton, 3 Bottas, 4 Ricciardo, 5 Verstappen, 6 Raikkonen, 7 Leclerc, 8 Grosjean, 9 Magnussen, 10 Gasly.
Ricciardo goes fourth on a new set of supersofts, and Verstappen comes across the line fifth, nearly two tenths down. Ricciardo had a handy tow, it must be said, and set a new fastest speed across the start/finish line of 333km/h.

By: Geoff Creighton

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