F1 Qatar GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 and FP2
Friday's practice action at the inaugural Qatar GP at Losail
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With 15 minutes left, the order is this: Verstappen, Bottas, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Leclerc, Norris, Sainz, Ricciardo, Vettel, Gasly.
"What are you doing with track limits at the moment," Jonathan Wheatley asks Michael Masi. The race director replies that he's just letting the cars run to work out where they should be. Answer: probably everywhere, let's be honest.
Norris had a bumpy ride on the Turn 15 exit kerb, and has retreated to the pits.
Leclerc moves up to fifth on softs, as everyone bar Gasly is circulating on the red-walled tyres.
Stopwatch
Hamilton posts a 1m24.509s, but Verstappen stabs home a 1m23.723s to go top once again.
Stopwatch
Tsunoda briefly goes top, before Bottas posts a 1m24.194s - half a second quicker than the AlphaTauri driver.
"Brake failure", Stroll reports, managing to corral his Aston Martin back to the pits. "Don't shift, there's a hydraulics issue," his engineer tells him.
Vettel moves up to P4, and Giovinazzi goes up to P9 as the second round of runs begins.
Latifi gets up to P10 on the softs, 0.002s faster than Perez in P11. Other than that, few changes in order at this stage.
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Alonso, Latifi and Ocon now are trying out the soft tyres for size, after the initial flurry of runs were done on hards and mediums.
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Just three cars on track now: Leclerc, Sainz and Latifi.
With 20 minutes gone, our top 10 is Verstappen, Norris, Bottas, Hamilton, Gasly, Leclerc, Ocon, Ricciardo, Sainz and Tsunoda.
Stopwatch
Verstappen continues to raise the bar (or lower it, if this is a limbo contest) with a 1m24.855s.
Lots of drivers exploring the limits of the track - suffice it to say the FIA might add a few more corners to its track limits watchlist...
Stopwatch
Lots of purple on the timing board as drivers continue to find more time - Verstappen posts a 1m24.998s.
Stopwatch
Bottas and Norris now go even quicker, Norris posting a 1m25.215s to go top.
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It's a 1m25.669s for Verstappen, finding a lot more time on the table.
"I feel massively down on power," Hamilton says over the radio, which doesn't sound entirely encouraging given his previous weekend's exploits.
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Gasly brings us to a 1m26.233s, as Sainz drops into P2 with a lap just two tenths slower.
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Ricciardo then eclipses his former team-mate's time with a 1m26.727s.
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Leclerc, Norris and Bottas brought us into the 1m27s, but Verstappen posts a 1m26.829s to raise the bar further.
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"This is fun," Daniel Ricciardo says, as he experience's the circuit's flowing nature. It's made for bikes really; our two-wheeled guru Lewis Duncan is undoubtedly wondering why four-wheeled machines are on his patch...
Stopwatch
Gasly gets us up to a 1m28.610s now. That'll fall as the circuit rubbers in and the drivers get more experience.
Stopwatch
Raikkonen gave us our first lap on the board, a 1m30.173s, but Ricciardo briefly went top with a lap in the 1m29s before the Finn shaded him by a tenth.
Plenty of activity in this opening two minutes, as the teams seek to get lots of Losail laps on the board - because they know very little about it! They get asphalt profiles and do sim laps - but that's it.
Raikkonen was the earliest bird on-track, followed by the two Haas cars and Ricciardo.
Green flag
FP1 at Qatar is go.
You can't tell me that the Losail circuit doesn't look like this lad:
Track limits will be monitored at FIVE corners - Turns 4, 12, 13, 14 and 16. Going off at Turn 16 will invalidate the lap a driver is on, AND their next lap. It's just like the F1 game...
Of course, we'll let you know what happens on the Mercedes/Red Bull appeals front, but we'll focus up on bringing you track action once we're under way.
One of the questions you may be asking is this: what's the situation with Mercedes' right to review the Brazil scuffle with Max Verstappen? The answer is that...nobody knows. Not like stewards to drag their heels...
Breaking news
The first is Sergio Perez, who won here at the short-lived GP2 Asia. The other? Nikita Mazepin, who raced at Losail during the 2014-15 MRF Challenge.
It's F1's first ever Grand Prix in Qatar, and the first at Losail - a circuit that two drivers on the current grid have raced at. Can you guess who they are?
Good morning everyone! We're back, and delivering updates across this weekend for the Qatar Grand Prix. FP1 will be under way in just over 15 minutes at the Losail circuit.
By: Autosport Staff
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