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Formula 1 Mexican GP

Mexican GP Friday practice

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Hello Bottas. We have a car on track. It's the Mercedes driver, who is currently second on the timing screens, 0.257s off the pace. He's out on ultra-softs.
Edd Straw
Have to say, Vettel is driving stunningly (at least in the stadium section). Every correction is executed perfectly and he's carrying good speed. Hugely impressive.
Information
And a quick look at the bottom half:

11 Hulkenberg
12 Stroll
13 Wehrlein
14 Gelael
15 Hartley
16 Celis
17 Leclerc
18 Giovinazzi
19 Magnussen
20 Vandoorne (no time)
Information
Here's your top 10 – Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, Force India, Williams, McLaren and Renault all represented!

1 Vettel 1m18.824s (SS)
2 Bottas 1m19.081s (SS)
3 Verstappen 1m19.317s (S)
4 Hamilton 1m19.373s (SS)
5 Raikkonen 1m19.375s (SS)
6 Perez 1m20.109s (US)
7 Ricciardo 1m20.245s (S)
8 Massa 1m20.258s (US)
9 Alonso 1m20.711s (S)
10 Sainz 1m20.976s (US)
Everyone is back to the pits now as we edge towards the halfway mark in the session. Sounds like a perfect chance to update you on the current order...
Verstappen third, on a 1m19.317. He's still on soft tyres.
Edd Straw
Vettel looked way too hot into T13, but a deft correction after turn in sorted that out and got to the apex. Superbly controlled.
Stopwatch
Vettel gets into the 1m18s – it's a 1m18.824s from the Ferrari driver.
Stopwatch
Vettel comes to the fore with a 1m19.041s that puts him P1, 0.040s than Bottas who has just improved too.
Raikkonen's managed to split the Mercedes drivers with a time just 0.002s slower than Hamilton. He's on super-soft tyres, too.
Edd Straw
Lots of weaving to get tyres up to temperature after that brief VSC. Clearly not easy to get the tyres in the window on this surface.
Yellow flag
Brief virtual safety car period for the stopped Toro Rosso, but Hartley's managed to get back going again – and he's bringing the car back to the pits.
Crash
Hartley's stopped on track – the curse of Edd Straw! "Engine's stopped."

Also, Magnussen's been informed of some kind of problem over the radio and he's back in the pits.
Edd Straw
Hartley is, as you'd expect, looking far more at one with the car this weekend. One of the more consistent drivers through T13.

Leclerc wide out of T12 and has a bit of trouble getting the throttle to pick up again.
Bottas restores Mercedes' one-two with a 1m19.410s, within half a tenth of team-mate Hamilton.
Stopwatch
Verstappen's time at the top lasts no time at all. Hamilton hits the front again with a 1m19.373s.
Stopwatch
Vettel goes second on a 1m19.685s – as Verstappen leaps to P1 on soft tyres! A 1m19.551s from the Red Bull driver.
Edd Straw
There's a fair bit of smoke from Alonso's right front brake as he backs up to get some space. He is way too attacking on turn in to 13, runs wide, and doesn't finish sorting it all out until after the corner.
Radio Comms
"We can see a problem, we'll fix it for the next run," Hartley is told over the radio after a slide and another unknown issue.
Edd Straw
Seeing a mix of approaches here, some drivers keeping it tighter to the apex, others, such as Sainz, running wider. Verstappen is able to judge the braking well and looks hooked up, meaning he's able to feed in the power out of the corner.
Vettel joins the party at the front, slotting into third, just under three tenths slower than Bottas. All three on super-softs.
Edd Straw
Massa had to turn in about four times for T13. Constant readjustment.
Stopwatch
Bottas gets back ahead of his team-mate, a 1m19.614s. He's two tenths clear of Hamilton now.
Edd Straw
Some tales of woe. Stroll struggling for braking stability into T13. As soon as he applied a bit of lock, the rear started misbehaving.

A few drivers having too much rear sliding just before the T13 apex. Bottas among them, although last time round was struggling to get the front end in. Hulkenberg seems very in tune with grip levels right now. Hamilton too.

Then there's a big wobble for Leclerc at the rear out of T12. No surprise that the drivers dropping in just for this session are struggling to adapt to available grip.
Stopwatch
Hamilton goes quickest by half a second on a 1m19.815s.
Stopwatch
Perez's second lap on ultra-softs gets him to three tenths slower than Bottas – who has a new fastest lap of 1m20.354s now.
Crash
Ooh, that explains Hamilton's slow lap – he's run off the track at Turn 3 and skated across the grass. No harm done.
Stroll's up to P2, 2.4s slower than Bottas and using ultra-soft Pirellis. Hamilton has a slow lap time on the board. He's behind Gelael and ahead of Perez.
Stopwatch
Bottas improves on his second lap to a 1m20.584s, so the pace is already quicker than a year ago.
Stroll's got on the leaderboard with a time but it's an unrepresentative (we hope) 1m28.800s.
Stopwatch
Bottas completes the set and stops the clocks at 1m21.212s to go 2.2s clear of Giovinazzi.
Bottas is out on super-softs and has just posted the fastest first and second sectors so far...
Edd Straw
Giovinazzi, on softs, has been experimenting on approaches to T13. Has had both the front and rear end not sticking, but last lap round took a more conservative approach and had a smoother run.
No improvement that time for Giovinazzi. Do better. Also, other F1 teams, do better and set a timed lap.
Stopwatch
Giovinazzi now on a 1m23.841s. Serene progress so far for the official Ferrari reserve. This is an important session for Haas.

Steiner said Haas would run back-to-back tests in first practice, to make sure the upgrade introduced in America is working correctly.

"It delivered something but with all the troubles we had, we need to evaluate it a little bit more here and what it is actually doing," he said.

"We'll try to do something in FP1 to compare data - Antonio [Giovinazzi] will have the old one, Kevin [Magnussen] will have the new one."
Stopwatch
Giovinazzi down to a 1m24.350s now as he continues to improve. Still the only driver to post a lap time.

By: Geoff Creighton

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