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F1 Eifel GP Live Updates - final practice and qualifying
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Now Verstappen on the softs moves up to the quickest time of the session so far, it's a 1m25.720s for the Dutchman with Albon now third in the second Red Bull on a 1m26.285s.
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Hamilton lays down a marker at the start of the session with a 1m26.183s, which is 0.8s quicker than Bottas. Indeed, the Finn is behind Norris, Ocon, Sainz and Perez after that tardy lap.
Green flag
Q2 is underway now, with both Mercedes, Ferraris and Ricciardo's Renault all on mediums.
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As LUKE SMITH points out, had it not been for that track limits issue at Turn 4, he would have made it comfortably into Q2. A mistake to rue for the Frenchman, who along with Giovinazzi is under pressure for his F1 future.
Raikkonen's record-breaking 323rd race start will be from the back row of the grid for Alfa Romeo, ahead only of last-minute supersub Hulkenberg, who ends the session a respectable 0.9s off team-mate Perez.
Grosjean misses out on joining his team-mate Magnussen in Q2 by 0.03s and will start from P16, ahead of Russell, who preserves his qualifying advantage over Latifi in P18.
No, he can't - it's a first Q2 appearance of the year for Giovinazzi, who is driving for his F1 career with Mick Schumacher breathing (not literally due to the obligatory face-masks) down his neck.
Grosjean aborts his final lap - can Russell escape the drop?
Giovinazzi now leaps into P15 and pushes Grosjean into the danger zone, along with Russell, Latifi, Raikkonen and Hulkenberg.
Norris shows how the track is continuing to improve with a 1m28.829s to move up to fourth.
Hulkenberg improves to a 1m28.458s but it's only good enough for P19 to bump him above Giovinazzi.
The top four are staying in the garage - Verstappen, Bottas, Hamilton and Leclerc all clearly believe they're safe as Perez now drops into the bottom five.
Huge improvement from the two Haas cars with the track rubbering in, as Grosjean moves up to fifth and Magnussen to seventh - although Grosjean's lap will be deleted for track limits at Turn 4.
Perez was the only man who used mediums for his first run, so you can expect him to move up with another crack on the softs.
Strong lap there from Latifi, who moves up to P13 ahead of team-mate Russell to bump Grosjean into the drop zone, Perez now on the bubble by just 0.007s.
Perez in P14 isn't exactly safe either - he's just 0.009s ahead of Magnussen, the first man inside the drop zone. Hulkenberg is 1.7s back from his team-mate bringing up the rear.
Bottas has improved to second, ahead of Hamilton but still over two tenths slower than Verstappen.
Grosjean is the man on the bubble, just 0.002s between himself and team-mate Magnussen in P15.
Albon also pits his first time of the session onto the board and moves up to fifth, so we now have a representative bottom five who face elimination from Q3. They include Magnussen, Raikkonen, Latifi, Giovinazzi and Hulkenberg.
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And now Verstappen moves to the top of the timesheets on a 1m26.319s, four tenths quicker than Hamilton.
Strong lap there from Leclerc, who splits the two Mercedes in P2. Could this be Ferrari's best showing of the year?
Giovinazzi becomes the latest driver to have a lap deleted for track limits at Turn 4, a 1m28.817s falling by the wayside.
Hamilton is the first man so far into the 1m26.703s, two tenths quicker than team-mate Bottas. Norris is half a second further back from the Finn, the quickest non-Mercedes in P3.
Hulkenberg's first timed lap is a 1m32.190s, which is 4s away from the quickest time so far by Kvyat's AlphaTauri.
First lap of the session is posted by Magnussen, a 1m28.861s, but it's swiftly deleted for track limits.
Bit of early drama for Gasly who leaves his garage with a part of the tyre blanket still attached to his car. Thankfully he stops and a mechanic is able to remove it before he got into the fast lane to impede anybody else.
No surprise as Hulkenberg is among those who heads straight out of the pits to get a feel for the car - remember, he subbed for Perez at Silverstone, and is now in the chassis earmarked for Stroll, so there are bound to be a few small differences here and there.
Green flag
Green light at the pitlane exit, we're underway.
Hulkenberg looks like he's got a different helmet design again this weekend, sporting a distinctive black and yellow livery that looks fairly reminiscent of the colours of old team, Renault.
Here's your five-minute warning. Qualifying is just around the corner.
A lot of work going on down in the Red Bull garage on the front-end of Albon's car. Still nine minutes to go until Q1 is green, but that car doesn't look like it's in shipshape condition.
Air temperature is a chilly 8.5 degrees and track temperature is just 16.8 degrees.
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Risk of rain for this session is a tantalising 40%. But then again, at the Nurburgring you can never really rule out a dramatic change in the weather.
One of the surprises of FP3 was Ferrari, with Leclerc taking best-of-the-rest honours in third. His best qualifying of the year remains P4 at the British GP, when he was 1.2s off the pace, but could the condensed schedule be playing into Ferrari's hands?
Just under 20 minutes now to the start of qualifying. Remember, Bottas was quickest in the only session we've had so far, after Hamilton's final soft-tyre run was compromised by Latifi spinning on his first flying lap. It's still all to play for at the top, as teams are still on a constant learning mission to understand how their cars work on this circuit.
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Alas, that means Stoffel Vandoorne will remain on the subs bench once again. Still, Luca Badoer was passed up for a Ferrari drive in 1999 when Michael Schumacher was sidelined and only had to wait a decade to get his chance. Perhaps the Belgian could be the raffle winner in 2030...
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Hulkenberg's third appearance of the 2020 season will likely be his toughest yet. Although he hadn't driven the RP20 until British GP FP1 and had a seven-month layoff after his previous F1 appearance with Renault at Abu Dhabi - which meant Silverstone's high-speed twists came as something of an assault on the neck - here he'll be jumping immediately into qualifying having completed no track running since 2013. It's a tough ask, but will he have the answers?
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
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