F1 Portuguese GP Live Updates - final practice and qualifying
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That raises the prospect for a tantalising qualifying ahead. Who will gamble on a medium tyre for Q2? And will Verstappen be able to get in amongst the Mercedes in Q3? We'll have it all covered from 14:00 UK time.
Checkered flag
All of that means Bottas continues his clean sweep of the Portuguese GP weekend, with Hamilton 0.026s behind, with Verstappen tantalisingly close to the Mercedes on a medium tyre run. Here's the top 10 order in full:
1 Bottas
2 Hamilton
3 Verstappen
4 Gasly
5 Albon
6 Leclerc
7 Sainz
8 Perez
9 Norris
10 Ocon
1 Bottas
2 Hamilton
3 Verstappen
4 Gasly
5 Albon
6 Leclerc
7 Sainz
8 Perez
9 Norris
10 Ocon
Mystery solved, a drain cover has come loose on the exit of Turn 14 and will require some attention to remedy. We don't want a repeat of the Montoya China 2005 incident, or - worse Russell in Baku last year.
No indication yet of what has caused the stoppage, but the timing screens say the session will not be restarted.
Red flag
And now we've got a red-flag with two minutes to go.
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Grosjean (again), Stroll and Magnussen again come a cropper of the Turn 1 track limits rule. Sorry to sound like a broken record, but there is little in the way of improvement at the moment as track temperatures continue to rise.
Track temperatures are now at 29.6 degrees - much warmer than the conditions we saw at the start of the session. Will that turn into any late improvements?
Bottas, Sainz and Ocon now join the crowded naughty step for track limits infringements. Will there be enough space to accommodate them all?
Both Mercedes are out again for another qualifying simulation on soft rubber, along with Albon - who complains over the radio that Red Bull isn't managing its tyre warm-up procedures correctly.
Ricciardo reports that his DRS isn't working, which won't be especially helpful on the long front straight. The Australian currently sits P13, three spots behind team-mate Esteban Ocon.
Kvyat in the sister AlphaTauri has done a session-high 22 laps so far, and had two track limits violations in as many tours at Turn 1 and Turn 4 which mean he's still down in P14.
Gasly still keeping the lead AlphaTauri in the mix in fourth, splitting the two Red Bulls and the only man other than the Mercedes pair and Verstappen to lap in under 1m17s. An impressive recovery from the Frenchman after his BBQ yesterday.
Leclerc is back on track again after his earlier spin. Still, he's comfortably the quickest of the Ferraris once again, with Vettel three tenths slower in P10.
Hamilton is back in the garage after his earlier off and his left-front endplate is receiving close scrutiny from his mechanics, checking there is no damage before it is used again.
Everybody bar Ricciardo and Magnussen has now completed more than 10 laps - just seven and six respectively for the Renault and Haas drivers so far with a shade under 20 minutes remaining.
Interestingly, Verstappen still has the quickest first sector time on the board, with Hamilton quickest in sectors two and three. Bottas not purple in any of them, but the most consistent across the lap so far.
Grosjean had moved up to 16th ahead of Stroll on a 1m18.132s but... you guessed the rest.
A rare mistake there from Hamilton, who goes off at Turn 8 and has to chug slowly through the gravel to get back onto the track.
Stopwatch
Albon manages to duck under the 1m17s barrier, only to lose his time to another track limits breach. Meanwhile Bottas launches back to the top with a 1m16.654s.
Bottas and Hamilton are back out again on another set of softs, the former currently staring at a 0.8s deficit to his team-mate.
Stopwatch
Verstappen is still chugging away on his mediums and laps just over a tenth above Hamilton's best so far, a 1m16.812s to put him second, ahead of Gasly. Albon is now up to fourth on a 1m17.117s, also on mediums.
Serial track limits offender Grosjean has another strike against his name and is currently rooted to the bottom of the timesheets. Haas team-mate Magnussen not faring too much better in 18th, around 0.15s ahead.
Radio Comms
After a hefty lock-up at Turn 5 that causes him to go straight on into the run-off, Russell heads back to the pits. "That was a big one, box box," he reports over the radio.
Grosjean not having a great time of it at the moment. He's 19th in the order and is venting at Norris for getting in his way at Turn 14, when there was not really anywhere else the McLaren driver could have gone.
As Albon becomes the latest driver to lose a time, his team-mate Verstappen now launches to the top of the timesheets on a 1m16.659s - but it's short lived, as his time is also deleted for running too wide at Turn 1.
Information
Even with the rule tweak, plenty of drivers are still falling foul of track limits at Turn 1. Russell has been pinged twice, while Grosjean and Giovinazzi have also had times deleted.
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Carlos Sainz has taken a new engine, turbo, MGU-H and MGU-K ahead of the rest of the weekend. Within the season lim… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Stopwatch
Speaking of the Spaniard, he now improves to fourth ahead of Bottas, only to be shuffled back another place himself by Verstappen - who moves up to third on a 1m17.228s. Track conditions are starting to come towards the mediums a bit more, with temperatures now at 27 degrees.
Leclerc is still P3 for now though, ahead of Bottas and Sainz in the first of the McLarens - also the first of the medium-tyre runners on a 1m17.593s.
Replays show the back-end just stepped out on him through the downhill, off-camber right-hander. Bottas was also compromised there, as he had to slow down to heed the yellow flags.
Leclerc has had a spin at Turn 14 and promptly pits with his left-front heavily flat-spotted.
Stopwatch
Hamilton continues to improve on his soft tyres, and now lowers the benchmark time still further to a 1m16.680s. Gasly meanwhile has moved up to second in the AlphaTauri on a 1m17.047s, showing no ill-effects after the fire that ended FP2 yesterday.
Plenty of talk about the three Portuguese drivers to have started a GP this weekend (Mario de Araujo Cabral, Pedro Lamy and 2005 US GP podium-visitor Tiago Monteiro), but spare a thought for poor Pedro Chaves, who failed to pre-qualify 13 times in 1991 in this hopeless Coloni. The 1990 British F3000 champion is pictured here at Monaco, with several disinterested spectators watching on.
Bottas has also improved on his session best, but only to a 1m17.578s. Leclerc is third on a 1m18.028s - as both Sainz and Latifi have laps deleted for violating track limits at Turn 1.
Stopwatch
We've had the dreaded red and yellow slippery surface flag at Turn 10, but that is now thankfully removed as Hamilton goes top on a 1m16.931s.
Daniel Ricciardo now out on mediums too, along with McLaren men Norris and Sainz, with the Ferraris on softs at the moment.
With 0.028s between the top two, there's a yawning 1.8s gap currently back to third-placed man Kvyat on mediums.
Stopwatch
It's a 1m17.888s from Bottas - that puts him straight to the top of the times, with Hamilton just behind on a 1m17.916s.
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
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