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Formula 1 Brazilian GP

Brazilian GP final practice and qualifying

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Hamilton's lap puts him second, 0.241s slower than Vettel, as we get some replays of Hamilton's car letting out a few puffs of smoke. Nothing too dramatic, by the looks of it.
Radio Comms
Leclerc is told "we have a problem" and he should not attempt to lay rubber in his pit box when he returns.
Hamilton starts a flying lap this time. Run two is already going better than run one.
Another improvement for Leclerc, who is still up in fourth. Magnussen has slotted in behind Grosjean in the other Haas, so we have five Ferrari-powered cars in the top six at the moment, and six in the top nine.
Swift work down at Mercedes, it seems - Hamilton returns to the track. Let's see if he stays out for more than one slow lap this time.
Edd Straw
Leclerc seems to be picking up a bit of rear instability at turn in for Ferradura, which means he can’t be quite as decisive on entry as he intends to. Ericsson doesn't seem to have that problem.
Information
1 Vettel, 2 Bottas, 3 Raikkonen, 4 Leclerc, 5 Grosjean, 6 Magnussen, 7 Gasly, 8 Ericsson, 9 Hulkenberg, 10 Ocon.
Raikkonen - currently third - aborts a lap after setting two personal best sectors, and he comes into the pits.
Grosjean spoils the Sauber fun, splitting Leclerc and Ericsson to move up to fifth.
Here's a look at where Edd Straw is perched at the moment.

Here's a look at where Edd Straw is perched at the moment.

Earlier we had a Williams 2-3, now we have a Sauber 4-5. Ericsson slots in behind Leclerc, with a fair few cars on the leaderboard now, so a good start for Sauber.
Bottas moves up to second, while a wall of Mercedes mechanics have now stood across the front of Hamilton's side of the garage as work goes on under the bodywork of the world champion's car. Not ideal...
Scott Mitchell
Bottas carries great speed through Ferradura, although the rear end becomes a little unstable in Laranjinha.
Hulkenberg works around his heavy steering to go fifth. Fortunately there are quite a few left-handers here.
Radio Comms
Hulkenberg said his steering feels "much heavier" when turning to the right.
In the other Mercedes, Bottas slots into third behind the Ferraris. Future stars Leclerc and Gasly move into fourth and fifth.
Radio Comms
Hamilton was told to abort his practice start, head out onto the track carefully and return to the pits immediately. He asked if the team want him to take it easy, and after some confusion was eventually told "drive back, normal pace".
Edd Straw
Interesting to compare Vettel and Raikkonen through the Turn 6/7 double right - Ferradura and Laranjinha. Raikkonen keeps it a little tighter after taking the first apex while Vettel runs slightly wider.
Stopwatch
Sure enough, Vettel goes fastest with a 1m08.857s.
Sainz goes second in his Renault.
Radio Comms
Stroll asked to do another lap, and Williams suggests he tries to reduce the rear tyre temperatures if he's going to stay out.
Radio Comms
"You can push," Vettel is told as he starts a flying lap on supersofts.
Stroll moves ahead of Sirotkin to make it a Williams 2-3... out of three cars to have set a time.
Stopwatch
Raikkonen improves his time again to a 1m09.409s.
As it's such a short lap here, the teams aren't under massive pressure to get their pre-qualifying simulation runs out of the way too early in FP3. When the cars are coming around almost every minute, there's plenty of time to get your runs in.
Sirotkin crosses the line 1.5s down on the Ferrari.
Stopwatch
Raikkonen kicks us off on the timing screens with a 1m09.424s on supersofts.
Quiet start to FP3 - we've seen nine cars leave the pitlane so far, but no times set yet.

By: Geoff Creighton

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