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Formula 1
Sakhir GP
F1 Sakhir GP Live Updates - race day
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Pit stop
Russell will now come in to make his stop, and grabs a set of hard tyres. Nice and clean from the Mercedes team.
After those pitstops for Stroll and Ocon, the French driver gets by his Racing Point rival around the outside at Turn 4. Stroll’s tyres wouldn’t have been up to temperature at that point so that’s good opportunism by Ocon.
Radio Comms
"George, we're going to keep extending as we have traffic in our pit window," says Pete Bonnington. "No problem," he says. It's like air traffic control on the Mercedes pit wall.
Pit stop
Stroll comes in too, taking the medium compound tyre.
Pit stop
Ocon pits from fourth, coming in for hard tyres.
Radio Comms
Stroll reports his tyres are starting to drop a bit. They're 43 laps old, and he's managed to get them to what's approaching half distance.
"Let's put pressure on Stroll," Ocon is told. The Renault driver has got Perez right on his six, so he needs to get a wiggle on.
Stroll's kept these softs going an awful long way - presumably he's aiming for a one-stop here.
Radio Comms
The AWS graphic puts a worrying spin on Russell's tyre situation - but the driver himself says the tyres are fine.
Of the 'Class C' runners, Latifi heads that pack in 13th having fought off an early attack from Giovinazzi. The Italian is almost within DRS range of the Williams so that one isn't over. Behind them Magnussen is 15th, Aitken 16th, Raikkonen 17th and Fittipaldi 18th.
Perez, who's been flying, will cycle up to third at this rate. He'll surely have to stop again, but that's an ace recovery after the Lap 1 drama.
After his mega start on the softs, Norris, now on the mediums, is just four seconds off Gasly as the pit cycle plays out. You can add him to this midfield fight shortly.
Kvyat made that undercut work with the fastest lap, a 57.580s.
Sainz emerges ahead of Kvyat, and Ricciardo now pits - crucially emerging behind Kvyat.
Pit stop
Sainz and Gasly pit from the top six, Sainz was in P3, Gasly sixth.
Albon is under no pressure from behind, with Vettel in 11th eight seconds back, but he has already dropped a couple of seconds back from Perez. Might be time to pit.
Pit stop
Kvyat pits from fifth, trying to get an undercut working on Ricciardo et al.
Stopwatch
Russell's new fastest lap, a 57.975s, does stick - and he's now edging a little further away from Bottas now having been told the Finn is using more kerbs.
Radio Comms
"We're faster but we're just not raceable,” Albon tells his Red Bull team over the radio. Make of that what you will.
Ricciardo's pulled clear of the DRS train behind him, which now leaves Kvyat vulnerable to Stroll behind.
If Perez hoped to put in a performance to secure his F1 future he's certainly producing a good effort so far. A lap after passing Norris the Mexican driver charges around the outside of Albon at Turn 4 to take ninth place off the Red Bull driver.
A new fastest lap for Russell, logging a 57.955s...but it was then deleted for track limits.
Russell's keeping a 2s buffer from Bottas, with Sainz 8.6s behind. Ricciardo's dropped out of DRS range, but still has his train following him.
On lap 20 Albon finds a way past Norris between Turn 4-5, with Perez following through immediately. Norris duly pits at the end of that lap to trade his softs for fresh mediums.
Tyre strategy playing its part in this Norris-Albon-Perez tussle, as the McLaren driver, who started on the softs, is holding up the Red Bull driver on mediums while Perez, on fresh mediums having pitted on lap one, is ready to pounce.
Stopwatch
Bottas does a 57.978s to try and catch Russell, but the two are very evenly matched on times.
On lap 18 Albon has caught up to the rear of Norris but is under intense pressure from Perez direclty behind him. So not much has changed in that sense for the Thai driver.
Radio Comms
"Valtteri, we are target plus nine," says Bottas' race engineer Riccardo Musconi. So, that's an extra nine laps he can go on these tyres.
We'e got a bit of a train behind Sainz - Ricciardo, Kvyat, Stroll and Gasly all queued up with DRS.
Twitter
A bad couple of laps for Vettel as he loses places to both Albon and Perez. It sees the Red Bull driver move up to 10th and the Mexican up to 11th, so that looks like a tasty fight given the potential future implications of both drivers.
Sainz reports that "the deployment is wrong", upset with the ERS setting for this circuit. He's dropped to 3s behind Bottas, with Ricciardo catching him.
Perez is also making good progress after his opening lap tangle, climbing up to 12th place ahead of Magnussen. Further back there is a royal scrap developing between both Williams and Alfa Romeo drivers!
Stopwatch
Russell with another fastest lap, a 58.059s. He's got 2s over Bottas now.
At the start of lap eight Norris charges past Vettel to take ninth place under braking at Turn 1. The McLaren driver is certainly making the most of that fresh engine tonight.
Information
The Perez/Leclerc/Vettel incident will be looked at post-race.
Stopwatch
A 58.160s for Russell, then, as our leader builds a buffer over Bottas.
At the restart Albon has got the better of Magnussen to take 11th place, while Perez is already up to 15th place!
Sainz grabs second, but dips a wheel off the road at turn 2 and lets Bottas reclaim the place!
Russell hits the gas to get us up and running, with Sainz with a run on Bottas!
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
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