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Formula 1
Azerbaijan GP
F1 Azerbaijan GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 and Qualifying
Live updates from Saturday's final practice session and qualifying from Baku
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Latifi's up to sixth - on the softs, but that's a nice turn of pace from the affable Canadian.
Norris is up to P9 now, as there's a couple of cars improving on pace in the second half of the session.
The Aston pair, Hamilton, Russell and Norris are the first to kick us off again.
Green flag
We're back underway!
The SESSION will resume in two minutes' time. Apologies for that dreadful typo, I'll hand myself my P45.
Verstappen gets out of the car, inspects the front end of his Red Bull, and now has to perform the walk of shame.
Stopwatch
Gasly had just taken the times down to a 1m43.051s before Verstappen went into the wall.
Verstappen got into Turn 15 a little bit hot, locked his front left and slid into the wall.
Red flag
That's a red flag, as Verstappen can't engage reverse.
Yellow flag
Verstappen's gone too deep into turn 15 and hit the wall.
Stroll gets up to P9 as the final runner to finally set a time - the Aston Martin driver on softs.
Tsunoda, Gasly and Raikkonen have the current fastest sector times, which combine for a 1m42.863s.
Stopwatch
Gasly now goes top to give us an AlphaTauri 1-2 for the time being, logging a 1m43.187s.
Hamilton gets up to P7, as the Mercedes cars are currently sandwiching the Alfa Romeos in the timing charts.
Quote
Sainz asks if the track is slower at the moment, and feels the rear is sliding around a bit more - his engineer tells him it's about a second slower compared to yesterday.
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"No rear end...or front," Hamilton reports. Mercedes changed their rear wings around, but still look unhappy.
Sainz gets up to third, also on mediums.
Stopwatch
Tsunoda now goes top with a 1m43.447s on the softs, as Leclerc also gets into the 1m43s on a set of mediums.
Stopwatch
Perez indeed logs a 1m44.165s to extend his advantage at the top, as Gasly now leaps up to P2.
Tsunoda, Perez and Leclerc are all lapping quite briskly at the moment, so there's more purple times to come our way...
We briefly hit a double-yellow in Turn 6, but that's now waved green. Verstappen also goes deep at Turn 4 and has to reverse out.
Raikkonen now goes up to second with a 1m44.8s, which immediately gets beaten by team-mate Giovinazzi.
Ricciardo posts a 1m45.054s, as Tsunoda goes second and sets a 1m44.970s.
Stopwatch
Norris vaults to the top with a 1m45.279s, but Perez immediately beats that to bring us into the 1m44s.
At last, we now get into the cut-and-thrust of quicker laps - so let's take a deep breath...
More cars join the pack; Bottas, Norris, Ricciardo, Perez and Tsunoda on the road.
Alonso does a 1m45.838s on the medium, just 0.1s off Mazepin's current benchmark on soft tyres.
The 2005-'06 champion now gets his first FP3 lap underway, DRS wide open as he crosses the line.
Fernando Alonso breaks the Haas deadlock and gets out on track.
Very close to one of the run-off areas in the central part of the track is a fabulous Russian restaurant. Try the Medovik, it's phenomenal.
The Haas duo does have the circuit to itself, Schumacher and Mazepin getting some more learning on the Baku streets.
"The track seems to be very dirty", the Haas No.9 driver reports. I'm not touching that.
It takes about 40 seconds for two cars to make a move - but the two Haases kick us off.
Green flag
And its time to go! FP3 is underway.
Does anyone really want to know the risk of rain? No? Well, it's 0% anyway...
Air temp in Baku stands at 27.5 degrees C, with track temperature climbing up to 54 degrees. We've also got a headwind down the straight, which will boost the effectiveness of a) the tow, b) DRS.
Breaking news
Here's Alex Kalinauckas' analysis of yesterday's running (coinciding with his birthday, which he'll hate me for mentioning): https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-mercedes-worst-friday-leaves-it-behind-alfa-in-baku-so-far-as-red-bulls-run-riot/6533653/
Red Bull looks pretty good, doesn't it? Ferrari seems to be the second-quickest team in Azerbaijan at the moment as Mercedes hit trouble yesterday. The balance at Merc was fine, but just couldn't find grip.
Rock your body right - Baku's back (alright). Good morning everyone - it's almost FP3 time.
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