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Formula 1
Spanish GP
F1 Spanish GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying
Updates from Saturday's F1 FP3 and qualifying sessions ahead of the Spanish GP.
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After a week's break, F1 returns to action back in Europe for the Spanish GP.
Charles Leclerc leads the F1 drivers’ standings by 19 points from Max Verstappen following the Dutch driver’s Miami GP victory last time out, as Ferrari heads the teams’ standings by just six points from Red Bull.
An extensive range of upgrades have been delivered by almost every F1 team, which could shake-up the pecking order as teams push on with the development of the new cars.
FP3 for the Spanish GP gets underway at 12.00pm BST (1.00pm local time), followed by qualifying which starts at 3.00pm BST (4.00pm local time).
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Here we go, honest, as eight drivers decide it is time to go.
We promise you Q2 is underway, despite all 15 cars staying put in the pits so far. Talk amongst yourselves for the time being.
Green flag
Anyway, Q2 is go!
Ah, it matters not as the Alonso vs Norris incident will not be investigated by the stewards. TV replays reveal he was fighting for track position with Norris and the Mercs to find space to start his final lap.
A Turn 14 incident of impeding between Norris and Alonso has been noted by race control. Could that explain why Alonso failed to improve late on?
It was almost double disaster for Alpine, with Ocon scraping into Q2 by just 0.074s.
Out in Q1: 16th Vettel, 17th Alonso, 18th Stroll, 19th Albon, 20th Latifi.
Alonso is out! And so are both Aston Martins - that's all a bit of a surprise!
Gasly and Ricciardo also improve by enough to break out of the Q1 drop zone to push Alonso into the drop zone.
Both Canadian drivers Stroll and Latifi are out having failed to improve to get out of the bottom five.
Schumacher jumps up to ninth place which pushes Ricciardo into the drop zone.
Final Q1 run time, it's come around fast. After Imola and Miami we'd gotten used to a multitude of red flags disrupting practice and qualifying but so far all fine and serene.
With all drivers back in the pits, it is worth noting Ricciardo is the driver on the Q1 bubble in 15th place, he's got 0.370s in his pocket over Albon but given he's half a second off Norris there's time to find for the Aussie.
Perez has taken a trip over the gravel at Turn 8 which his Red Bull won't thank him for. The car looks OK but that gravel can cause havoc to these complicated car floors.
Right, everyone has set a lap time now and the bottom five looks like this: P16 Albon, P17 Stroll, P18 Gasly, P19 Schumacher and P20 Latifi.
The Stroll vs Norris incident will be investigated after qualifying.
Stopwatch
Suddenly it is a Ferrari 1-2 with Leclerc leading with a 1m19.861s, 0.031s quicker than Sainz. Further back the Mercedes pair of Russell and Hamilton slot into fourth and fifth respectively.
Lads, it's Q1. Stroll and Norris almost come together as the Canadian driver is released from his garage into the path of the McLaren driver. That's been noted by race control.
Stopwatch
Verstappen pops in a 1m20.091s to go top and in all expectation that should see him safely into Q2 already.
Stopwatch
Perez duly goes top with a 1m20.447s, ending his lap with giving team-mate Verstappen a handy slipstream. Plenty of drivers on the track now.
Red Bull have come out unusually early for Q1, with Perez already starting his first timed lap and Verstappen on an out-lap.
Stopwatch
Zhou sets the early top time with a 1m21.065s but we've got a long way to go in this session.
Schumacher was the other driver who had his final practice cut short, as he suffered a rear brake fire, and the German is sat in his Haas as late preparation work continues at the start of Q1.
Zhou is joined by Tsunoda and Gasly, which is good news for the French driver after suffering a smoky engine in FP3.
Green flag
Here we go for Q1! Zhou is the first driver out on track.
Sun
It is a real scorcher with air temperature at 34oC and track temperature at 47oC. Not a major factor for qualifying but conditions like that for tomorrow's race and Pirelli's tyres will be sweating. You know, if they could sweat.
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What does it all mean? No idea, but we'll find out over the next hour-and-a-bit. The drivers are heading to their garages with Q1 a few minutes away.
Add to the mix Mercedes who look resurgent with its upgrade package, with many tipping a three-team fight at the front this weekend.
Here's the thing though, so far Leclerc has dominated the single-lap pace and topped all three practice sessions, but Red Bull has looked to have the better race pace here.
To bash home that point, this race has only been won by a driver starting outside of the front row on three occasions. And one of those needed the Mercedes drivers to ram into each other on lap one.
That's because since this track's introduction on to the F1 calendar, 23 out of 31 races have been won by the polesitter. That's a 74% success rate - the highest on the current calendar and, yes, higher than Monaco.
We'll leave the debate about the new generation of F1 cars being better for racing for tomorrow's main event, but this still remains arguably the most important session of the weekend.
Afternoon all, who fancies some F1 qualifying action? Oh, go on then!
That session has created plenty of intrigue heading into qualifying with Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes all seemingly in the mix. And, given how crucial qualifying is in Barcelona, today's battle for pole is set to be a thriller. Be sure to join us in about 90 minutes' time for all the build up. Bye for now
Breaking news
Here's our full report on all the action from Friday practice: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-spanish-gp-leclerc-beats-verstappen-to-top-final-practice/10308103/
After that dramatic brake fire, Haas remains confident that Schumacher will be out in qualifying - in less than two hours' time. The team says a precautionary gearbox change is under way
But some of the most notable action of that session came in the pits where a heat shield issue put a smoky Gasly out and a dramatic brake fire for Schumacher leaves AlphaTauri and Haas with plenty to do before qualifying
There's no late improvements so it's Leclerc from Verstappen and Russell. Three drivers from three different teams in the top three - qualifying later could finally deliver a three-way battle between the giants of the series
Checkered flag
And that's all folks. The chequered flag is out to end practice for the Spanish GP
By: autosport.com
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