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Hamilton logs a 1m48.123s to put in another fastest lap. Bottas is told the track temp will drop with the greater cloud cover.
Perez, the last driver to pit in this race, has an almighty task ahead to carve his way into the points places. The Racing Point driver has just moved out of last place by overtaking Latifi and is now hunting down the Haas duo.
And Albon has enough on Gasly at the start of lap 24 to get the move done - a deficit of 0.5-0.6s across the start-finish line seems to be enough to get the run with DRS.
Albon is probing Gasly, but the AlphaTauri seems to be much stronger out of the corners than the Red Bull at this point.
And that's a slam-dunk move for Ricciardo, charging past Gasly on the Kemmel Straight with DRS. P4 is the Australian's reward.
How do you make the afternoon any worse for Ferrari? By having their drivers clash on track fighting for P12. Leclerc and Vettel come very close to repeating their Styrian GP collision as Leclerc has a look around the outside of his team-mate at Les Combes and the pair bash wheels but get away without picking up damage. Vettel keeps P12.
Ricciardo is now winding in Gasly, with Albon also getting back onto Ricciardo's tail.
Pit stop
Perez pits at the end of lap 18 from P7 to get rid of his soft tyres and take a fresh set of hards.
Albon doubles the frustration for Perez as he gets ahead to take P6 at the Bus Stop chicane at the end of lap 17.
Ricciardo steams past Perez on the Kemmel Straight, grabbing P5 from the yet-to-pit Racing Point driver.
Stopwatch
Bottas did a 1m48.156s on that last tour, but Hamilton's going a bit quicker this time around.
Raikkonen is one that pulls off an overtake as he gets ahead of former team-mate Vettel to take P12 at the end of the Kemmel Straight on lap 16. That puts the Alfa Romeo driver ahead of both Ferrari drivers, which isn't something that happens too often.
Hamilton is told that the power drops are just energy management related, so he seems to be a-okay. Bottas is closing, though...
Radio Comms
"Loss of power", Hamilton reports. He's keeping Bottas outside of DRS range for now, though...
Albon on the faster medium tyres pressures Ricciardo but isn't able to carve out an overtake on the opening lap of the restart. That keeps the Red Bull driver in P7.
Stopwatch
Hamilton does a 1m48.325s to really put the hammer down.
Perez gets a run at Gasly, but can't find a way though at the Kemmel Straight.
Green flag
We're back up and running - and Hamilton guns it down Blanchimont to get the advantage.
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One of the other lucky drivers in that incident was Raikkonen who had team-mate Giovinazzi crashing directly in front of him but he was able to get by before he rebounded on to the track and duly collect Russell.
Information
Safety car will come in at the end of lap 14, ie. this lap.
Albon's on the mediums, so Red Bull trying something a little bit different with his tyres compared to the hard runners.
Radio Comms
"I'm OK [deep breath], nowhere I could go guys," Russell says over his team radio.
TV replays show Giovinazzi losing control of his Alfa Romeo at Les Fagnes and he hits the outside wall and rebounds back towards the track. That gives poor Russell no option but to take avoiding action as he hits one of Giovinazzi's wheels that came off in the clash, which puts the Williams driver into the inside tyre wall. Thankfully, both drivers are walking away from the clash and appear to be OK.
Radio Comms
"There's a lot of debris out there," Hamilton reports.
Albon jumps Ocon in the stops, as Renault had less time to double-stack.
The Mercedes drivers pit for fresh tyres, as do the Red Bulls and Renaults.
The leaders gingerly make their way through the debris at Les Fagnes - a lot of carbon fibre left on the circuit.
Safety car
That clash has called out the Safety Car on lap 11.
Crash
Oh no! Giovinazzi and Russell have come together in a huge crash! Both drivers appear to be OK and getting out of their cars.
Radio Comms
"Feels like I have no grip on these tyres," Verstappen reports. That might be a call for a pit-stop soon.
Some sympathy must be given to Leclerc as his excellent start has been undone by his slow Ferrari on the straights. From P13 to P8 and back to P12 across the opening phase of this race.
Ricciardo has fallen behind Verstappen by almost 7s now, while Albon is still keeping tabs on Ocon for the time being.
A lap later Leclerc suffers a sense of deja vu as Kvyat becomes the latest driver to simple power ahead of him on the Kemmel Straight. The aid of DRS is one thing, but the power deficit Ferrari has against its rivals is staggering.
Hamilton and Bottas set virtually identical times on lap 7, as they waltz away from the rest of the field.
Norris breezes by Leclerc to take 10th place on the Kemmel Straight on lap six.
Radio Comms
"We have one push now," Bottas enquires. "Yes, but we agreed not to use it against each other," comes the reply, which Bottas says he hasn't heard before. So that's what one might call a team order...
Gasly, on the hard tyres, will be the one to watch in the midfield as this race develops with the AlphaTauri driver on the alternative strategy to everyone around him who are currently on the soft tyres.
Stopwatch
Hamilton now smashes in a 1m49.470s to open the gap up to Bottas considerably. A statement of intent there.
Perez, now ahead of Leclerc in ninth place, has settled into a stronger rhythm after his poor start and is chasing after the fast-starting Gasly.
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
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