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Formula 1
Mexico City GP
F1 Mexican GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix
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Although the F1 titles are already sewn up in favour of Max Verstappen and Red Bull, the final three races will shape the rest of the championship order, as Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez battle over the runner-up spot in the championship.
Carlos Sainz and George Russell headed Friday's practice sessions as the day was dominated by the reveal of Red Bull's cost cap punishment - and the team received a $7m fine and a 10% reduction in aerodynamic testing for next season.
Aston Martin also received a fine for its procedural breach of the cost cap rules, totalling $450k.
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But Schumacher's time is deleted for track limits at Turn 2! Magnussen lifts himself out of the drop zone and goes into 10th.
Perez is on another run as the circuit's relatively clear at this stage, and he punches in a lap good enough for sixth. But he's shuffled down a place by Schumacher, who then goes into P6.
Now that everyone's done a couple of runs, we have Schumacher, Albon, Vettel, Magnussen and Latifi in the drop zone at the moment. Will that change as we approach the final five minutes?
Bottas finds a lovely turn of pace in his Alfa Romeo and posts a 1m19.523s to go third fastest. Team-mate Zhou goes P11.
Hamilton went quicker in the opening sector, but lost time in the last two sectors and crossed the line with the third-best time - 0.3s down on Verstappen. Russell goes P5, behind Sainz.
Stopwatch
Verstappen abandoned his first lap as he couldn't keep the car hooked up in the opening complex of corners - but does a 1m19.222 on his next run to go fastest.
Stopwatch
Perez gets cheers all the way through his first timed lap, sets a 1m20.408s, and the circuit erupts as he goes top. But Leclerc posts a 1m19.505s to go nearly a second clear.
Stopwatch
Albon now pops up with a 1m20.859s to go into P1, as the circuit becomes much more busy.
Stopwatch
Stroll gets straight on with it and does a 1m21.6s, but Schumacher posts a 1m21.024s to go top for now. Magnussen slots in just 0.02s behind.
Schumacher kicks us off with a lap in the 1m32s, but it looks like two prep laps is the way to go. Albon does a lap in the 1m29s, still about 10s off the FP3 pace.
Albon, Stroll and Latifi now exit the pits too. The Williams has looked pretty decent thus far, with Albon an outside bet for a Q3 position if he can replicate his FP3 result of 10th.
Haas duo Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen are first to leave the pits. No other takers at the present.
Green flag
And Q1 now begins! It's crunch time.
It's 25 degrees C around the Mexico City circuit, and the air pressure is about 22 percent down on atmospheric levels at 0m altitude. Hence the big wings having less drag penalty.
Breaking news
So, will Mercedes make a successful bid for pole, or will Verstappen beat them? Or can home hero Sergio Perez send the Foro Sol into raptures? We'll find out very soon.
Much is made of the 2.25km altitude at this circuit, which makes the turbocharger work harder. It also makes it really difficult to sleep if you're not used to it.
Quick recap from FP3 earlier on: it was a Mercedes 1-2, with Russell ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen was third, ahead of Leclerc. Potential for a three-way battle here.
Hello hello, we're back! Qualifying will be coming your way in just under 20 minutes' time - and as always, we'll be with you all the way thr...hey, where are you going?
With proceedings delicately poised, that's all from us for now. We'll be back in about an hour and a half with all the build-up to qualifying. Bye for now.
Breaking news
Here's a round-up of all the key moments from that session:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-mexican-gp-fp3-report-russell-hamilton-mercedes-1-2/10392326/
But, perhaps most importantly, we got through that session without mentioning the cost c...
Someone who can be a bit happier with their session is Albon at Williams. He finished up 10th and, despite being one of the first to enjoy their new soft tyre running, he did not fall significantly back down the order. Bottas up in eighth was also a good effort.
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"The car is really difficult to drive - the front is not turning at all, so much understeer," bemoans Leclerc, who was clearly one of several drivers not entirely happy in that session.
As the cars head around to the line for their practice starts, that was an intriguing session. This seems to be the most genuinely competitive Mercedes has been all season, but how much do Verstappen and Red Bull have in reserve?
The answer to that is no. Sainz had set some personal bests but was slower in the final sector and stays sixth.
Checkered flag
The chequered flag is now out, but will there be any late improvers?
And Vettel now has an almighty lock-up into Turn 13, he really is struggling out there - but he's not the only one!
"That was a shocking lap," moans Vettel. The team asks if it's the brakes and Vettel replies that it's everything! He's down in 18th currently.
Leclerc only goes fourth with his soft-tyre effort and is a whole seven tenths slower than Mercedes. And Sainz is even slower and is just sixth.
Gasly has yet another lock-up out there, the AlphaTauri driver clearly isn't enjoying his car right now.
Perez does improve a bit more on his latest to attempt to go fourth - but is still four tenths behind Verstappen in third.
Finally, the Ferraris now head out having left it pretty late for the new soft-tyre runs.
We've now got a traffic jam with Stroll and Gasly battling all while one of the Mercedes cars is trying to get though.
Perez was set to go much closer to the Mercedes's time but has a lock up in the final sequence and therefore stays sixth. Neither Red Bull driver is quite nailing it at the moment.
Verstappen does marginally improve on that lap but stays third and is still half a second adrift of Russell.
Ricciardo now jumps up to 10th but is still the best part of a second slower than team-mate Norris, up in fourth.
Bottas now jumps up to fifth but we've still got a lot of drivers yet to set times on new softs.
And now Verstappen backs off after missing the Turn 4 braking point. Has he got the life in these soft tyres to go again. "Same problem again," he says on the radio, possibly hinting at tyre warm-up woes.
But the Dutchman is fractionally slower in the first sector, this really is looking encouraging for Mercedes.
By: autosport.com
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