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By: Geoff Creighton

Summary

Status: Stopped
Driver, Team, Time, Tyre
Bottas, Mercedes, 1m20.596s, S
Vettel, Ferrari, 1m20.396s, M
Verstappen, Red Bull, 1m20.649s, M
Perez, Force India, 1m21.643s, S
Sirotkin, Williams, 1m21.588s, S
Hulkenberg, Renault, 1m21.432s, M
Gasly,Toro Rosso, 1m20.973s, S
Magnussen, Haas, 1m21.298s, S
Vandoorne, McLaren, 1m21.946s, SS
Ericsson, Sauber, 1m21.706s, SS
Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m20.808s, S
Sainz, Renault, 1m21.455s, S
Stroll, Williams, 1m22.937s, HS
It's also been a pretty successful day of running for most of the teams, particularly those wanting to clock up race distances. And Red Bull managed to get a decent number of laps under the belt despite Verstappen verstoppin' out on track. Less successful for Toro Rosso, perhaps, after looking so promising this morning; Gasly hasn't been seen on track for hours (owing to a problem with the brake system, apparently) and the car is currently in a state of disassembly in the garage. McLaren will be most disappointed - Vandoorne completed just 38 laps and was second slowest, albeit only 1.550s down on the fastest lap of the day.
Main lesson from today is that we can say with some degree of certainty that there's not much of a performance gap in these conditions, at this circuit, between the medium and the soft tyres.
Final lap count:

Vettel 171
Verstappen 130
Ericsson 120
Magnussen 96
Perez 93
Sainz 91
Hamilton 91
Bottas 86
Stroll 86
Gasly 54
Hulkenberg 48
Sirotkin 42
Vandoorne 38
And the final act of the day is for the active cars to gather on the main straight and perform a practice standing start.
Chequered flag's out. Ferrari tops the first day of week two.
Verstappen did return to the track after he caused a red flag earlier in the afternoon

Verstappen did return to the track after he caused a red flag earlier in the afternoon

Vettel pits with 165 laps down, and heads straight back out after a pitstop. With Hamilton still pounding round, it doesn't look as if Ferrari will oust Mercedes in the mileage stakes today.
 
Five minutes left on the clock. Plenty of cars circulating, but none close to their personal best. Hamilton currently fastest in the mid-1m22s.
 
Vettel now with 160 laps in the books. That's five shy of the combined Hamilton/Bottas tally.
Vettel heads out for his latest stint

Vettel heads out for his latest stint

Peeking through the gap, I see the nose and engine cover are off, no rear wing, car on jacks. Wheels off.
This is the current view at Toro Rosso, snapped by Stuart Codling

This is the current view at Toro Rosso, snapped by Stuart Codling

Verstappen is heading out for the first time since that earlier red flag, he's on mediums. Vettel likewise heading back on circuit on the white-marked tyres.
New personal best for Sainz, a 1m21.455s, which takes him from 11th to eighth.
Here's a lap count update with 20 minutes to go:

Vettel 158
Verstappen 114
Ericsson 107
Bottas 86
Sainz 84
Perez 81
Magnussen 78
Hamilton 77
Stroll 67
Gasly 54
Hulkenberg 48
Sirotkin 42
Vandoorne 38
Sainz has moved up the order with a lap good enough for 11th (Sutton Images)

Sainz has moved up the order with a lap good enough for 11th (Sutton Images)

Personal best middle sector from Ericsson but no overall improvement.
Speaking of: Sainz posts a personal best 1m21.807s. That moves him ahead of Vandoorne.
Perez has returned to the track for the final 25 minutes. Maybe too late to get to a century. He's been overtaken on laps completed now by Sainz (81).
In our excitement, we missed that Ericsson has breezed into The 100 Club. He's actually on his 104th lap of the day.
Personal best in the final sector for Hamilton on his latest lap, which is six tenths slower overall.
Stuart Codling has spotted a Toro Rosso posse heading to the motorhome. Suggests no further running is imminent.
Stroll's back out on softs. Ericsson's a few seconds behind him, with Magnussen just behind the Sauber. All that track and we have three cars on the main straight. It's testing, be smarter. Unless you're testing how your car works in traffic. In which case, carry on.
The lesser spotted Toro Rosso earlier in the day

The lesser spotted Toro Rosso earlier in the day

Gasly has been notable by his absence. We've not seen him for three hours. Is that a possible problem for Toro Rosso-Honda?
Ultrasoft tyres for Ericsson, who had a not-especially-fast first lap and then a definitely-a-breather lap.
Hamilton's latest run is on the medium tyres.
Ericsson, buoyed by the prospect of membership to The 100 Club, heads back out in the Sauber.
Next up to join The 100 Club is Ericsson, who is on 96. Perez (77) may run out of time.
We haven't seen Verstappen since he stopped on track. He's the only driver other than Vettel to clear 100 laps – although if you mash Hamilton's laps this afternoon with Bottas's morning tally then Mercedes has just clocked its 150th lap. So the Silver Arrows outfit is still the most productive.
Perez is back in. Vettel, Magnussen, Sainz and Stroll still out there.
Vettel's out there and running on medium tyres, so if this run is just a reasonable length he'll clear 150 laps on a great day of testing for Ferrari.
Magnussen, who is on supersofts and on a pretty long run, just put in the best final sector of the day and a lap 0.15s slower than his best. Pretty good going.
Stroll brings his hypersoft run to an end.

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