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Formula 1 Chinese GP

Chinese GP final practice and qualifying

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Sainz can only manage 11th.
Mercedes is trying again, and Bottas at least gets ahead of Verstappen for fourth.
Hamilton is now down to eighth as Magnussen and Hulkenberg outpace him and go sixth and seventh.
Ocon pips Perez for seventh, and is within 0.023s of Hamilton in sixth.
Verstappen takes fourth. Red Bull has used ultrasofts though while Ferrari and Mercedes are on softs.
Ricciardo is now fully in business - he goes third ahead of the two Mercedes.
Perez goes fifth and is only a tenth off Hamilton.
Radio Comms
"Keep pushing because we're going to go for lap three" Mercedes tells Hamilton, so more to come from him on this run potentially.
Information
Up front so far: 1 Raikkonen; 2 Vettel +0.099s; 3 Bottas +0.645s; 4 Hamilton +1.049s
Vandoorne goes fifth and Hartley sixth.
Stopwatch
Raikkonen quickly puts Ferrari back ahead by 0.6s over Bottas, with Vettel popping in 0.099s behind his team-mate.
Hamilton is again slower than Bottas, 0.404s off the sister Mercedes.
Stopwatch
Bottas puts in a 1m32.931s to get Q2's flying laps rolling, but can that compare to what Ferrari will do?
Everyone else in Q2 has gone for ultrasofts for the first run.
They can start the race on these tyres if they make it through to Q3 on them.
As do the Ferrari boys.
The Mercs head straight out on soft tyres.
Top 10 to progress from the 15 participants in this segment of the session.
Green flag
Q2 is go in Shanghai.
Radio Comms
"Charles did a 34.4. We were faster until the last two corners" Sauber tells Ericsson. "I locked up, sorry about that" he replies sheepishly.
Replays show Ericsson also having a massive front lockup at the hairpin.
Radio Comms
"I locked up in the second to last corner!" says an exasperated Leclerc, who still ends up nearly half a second clear of Sauber team-mate Ericsson.
Information
Into Q2: 1 Vettel, 2 Raikkonen, 3 Bottas, 4 Verstappen, 5 Grosjean, 6 Hamilton, 7 Sainz, 8 Magnussen, 9 Alonso, 10 Perez, 11 Hulkenberg, 12 Ocon, 13 Vandoorne, 14 Ricciardo; 15 Hartley
Crash
Eliminated in Q1: 16 Sirotkin; 17 Gasly; 18 Stroll; 19 Leclerc; 20 Ericsson
Sainz's lap bumped Ricciardo down to 14th but he hangs on and makes it to Q2.
Sirotkin has been pushed back to 16th and Stroll is only 17th - which becomes 18th as Gasly gets ahead of him.
Sainz is now in the drop zone in 16th, but he leaps to seventh with a last-gasp effort.
Checkered flag
Chequered flag for the end of Q1 as Ricciardo completes his lap.
Ricciardo goes 13th with his one go at Q1, can he stay there?

By: Geoff Creighton

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