2018 Formula 1 Japanese GP
Japanese Grand Prix race day
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Raikkonen passed Sainz on his outlap and is immediately on the tail of Ocon for eighth.
Hamilton's lead over Bottas is just past 4s as they go onto lap 20 of 53.
Ricciardo is catching team-mate Verstappen for third at quite a rate now, but with nearly 9s between them still it looks unlikely that the #3 Red Bull will benefit from the #33's penalty.
Radio Comms
"Safety car and virtual safety car windows are open," Force India tells Perez.
Pit stop
Raikkonen dives into the pits from fourth. He switches to medium tyres and rejoins in 10th place.
"You will have some traffic," Ferrari tells him.
"You will have some traffic," Ferrari tells him.
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So now the 'Class B' cars are effectively in their natural positions, Grosjean has a margin of around 1.3s over Gasly at the head of that battle. Perez is 1.7s back, Ocon trails his team-mate by 1.2s while Sainz - who runs 10th having passed Hartley - is within 2s of the Force Indias.
Vettel has a dive past Hulkenberg into the chicane to claim another position.
Radio Comms
"Still overheating's [at] the limit if you can take the brake balance forward," Haas tells Grosjean.
Radio Comms
Red Bull seeks some tyre info from Ricciardo, who says he's "losing more rear grip than front".
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Radio Comms
Red Bull lets Verstappen now he's over 4s clear of Raikkonen now - ahead of that 5s penalty he'll take at his pitstop. "Keep this up, it's looking good," his engineer adds.
Vettel gets ahead of Leclerc and is 14th. The Renault of Hulkenberg, then Alonso's McLaren, are next up for the Ferrari.
Ricciardo is catching Raikkonen for fourth at a second per lap at the moment.
Radio Comms
Raikkonen says his Ferrari is struggling on left-hand corners. Could that be connected to the bodywork lost when he made contact with Verstappen?
Magnussen's earlier tyre trouble
Information
Lead gaps now: 1 Hamilton; 2 Bottas +2.8s; 3 Verstappen +5.3s; 4 Raikkonen +8.8s; 5 Ricciardo +15.7s
Vettel clears Stroll - who'd earlier been passed by Leclerc - for 15th, so once again sets after his 2019 team-mate.
Radio Comms
"Nice job," Red Bull tells Ricciardo, accurately.
Ricciardo does his chicane dive again and takes fifth from Grosjean. That's 15th to fifth in 14 laps for the Red Bull.
Radio Comms
Hamilton lets Mercedes know that he's feeling a bit of "hesitation" when he puts the power down in some places.
Radio Comms
Ferrari helpfully tells Raikkonen that he's now 3s behind Verstappen. He responds that he's "going as fast as I can."
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Ricciardo deploys the DRS and sweeps past Gasly into sixth. Next up will be Grosjean.
Vettel has also cleared Sirotkin, so Leclerc is his next target.
Vettel has a go at getting past Ericsson out of the chicane, can't quite manage it on traction, but then clears the Sauber on the run to Turn 1.
Ricciardo couldn't quite make it past Perez on the straight, so takes a lunge at the chicane instead. He succeeds and is up to seventh. Next target is Gasly, who you'd expect to be friendly.
Vettel is back in 18th, chasing down Ericsson and Sirotkin - who have both pitted for mediums.
Grosjean has a bit of a cushion back to Gasly in the battle for fifth, with Perez and Ricciardo tucked up right behind the Toro Rosso.
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Crash
Bizarre replay from the moments before the restart, which show Ericsson having a bit of a lazy moment and running into the back of Leclerc.
Verstappen has shaken Raikkonen off again but is 2.5s behind the Mercedes.
Stopwatch
Hamilton sets another new fastest lap of 1m34.346s and extends his lead over Bottas to 2.5s.
Ricciardo is now up with next target Perez for seventh.
Pit stop
Bad day for Magnussen, who's back in the pits and being wheeled into the Haas garage.
Crash
The Verstappen/Vettel collision is now under investigation.
We haven't seen it on-screen, but Ricciardo has found a way past Ocon and is up to eighth.
Vettel felt there was enough of a gap to have a look down the inside at Spoon, Verstappen turned in, they made contact and the Ferrari spun off onto the run-off with a bit of debris flying.
Information
No further action in the incident between Magussen and Leclerc.
By: Geoff Creighton
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