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Formula 1 Japanese GP

Japanese GP Friday practice

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Radio Comms
"We are seeing a couple of little drop-outs on the rear wing but we are happy for you to stay out and maximise dry running," Mercedes tells Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas set the best time so far in sector one, but around the full lap he falls 0.007s shy of Hamilton.
Last week's race winner Max Verstappen goes third, half a second down on team-mate Ricciardo.
Daniel Ricciardo is second to Hamilton on super-softs, 0.828s off.
Stopwatch
Lewis Hamilton is already doing flying laps, kicking off with a 1m31.544s on softs.
Radio Comms
Sainz suggests to Toro Rosso that rain is already coming in.
Ben Anderson
I'm at the last part of the esses hoping it doesn't rain.

There's a halo on Pierre Gasly's car and an aero sensor hanging off the back of the left rear corner of Esteban Ocon's Force India too.

Looking forward to seeing what these beefed up 2017 cars can do on this mega track.
Everyone has now set out for an installation lap.
There's a huge aero rake on the side of Carlos Sainz Jr's Toro Rosso, while Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari is well decorated with flow-vis paint.
Information
No Friday testers today. Teams want to give their race drivers maximum milage on this demanding track, so it's 20 familiar faces.
Already 15 of the 20 cars have headed out of the pitlane.
Green flag
The session begins, with the Toro Rossos, Sebastian Vettel, Pascal Wehrlein and Jolyon Palmer leading an initial group out.

Teams will probably want to get cracking quickly when this session starts. It's dry and overcast for now, but rain is forecast.
Hello and welcome to Autosport Live, it's time for opening practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

By: Geoff Creighton

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