Mexican GP Friday practice
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By: Geoff Creighton
Summary
Status: Stopped
That's a wrap then for this session, with Sebastian Vettel completing a Ferrari clean sweep of Friday practice. Red Bull is within striking distance, while Mercedes needs to find something extra.
It was the Turn 8 kerb that sent Leclerc off the track. He hasn't hit anything and thus soon rejoined.
Chequered flag is out, as Vettel records another very good lap on softs, and Leclerc dips down into a similar range on the mediums.
After being told to make some engine adjustments, Verstappen says it "feels like a massive handbrake" - which he is told shouldn't have been the case.
Vettel has just equipped a fresh-ish set of softs, and has fired in a very good lap - the best of these race runs so far.
We're into the final five minutes of Friday F1 track action, and there's a brief yellow flag somewhere in the first sector for some reason.
And here's Lecelrc reporting that "tyres are completely gone", and he thus finally makes the switch to a set of mediums.
Hamilton has now switched to softs, whereas Bottas has taken on a set of hards. Leclerc is still persevering with the softs, but has lost something like three-four seconds compared to the start of his stint.
"Similar issues with graining, pace is okay at the moment. Lewis had two very good laps to start his stint, but is also suffering with graining," Red Bull tells Verstappen. Those two very good laps will have been the ones 0.001s apart.
Hamilton's laptimes on mediums had initially looked considerably better than Vettel's on the same compound, but the German seems to have turned the tide over the last few laps and now appears very much on par.
Verstappen has now swapped his softs - on which he looked quite good compared to Bottas and Leclerc - for mediums.
Obviously none of that will matter if it's impossible to overtake the Ferraris on the straight, but the various compounds are also not holding up all that well, which may present some strategy options come Sunday.
Hard to get any particularly valuable read on how teams are faring in their race pace simulations, as there's a fair bit of traffic. But the early indications are pretty good for Mercedes when it comes to mediums, and Red Bull when it comes to softs.
Hamilton may have been out of sorts over a single lap, but he looks on it in race simulations now. His last two laps were a 1m21.006s and a 1m21.005s.
Bottas, now on race runs like everyone else, came fairly close to losing his car exiting Turn 12 but held on to the slide going into the run-off.
Current order: 1 Vettel, 2 Verstappen, 3 Leclerc, 4 Bottas, 5 Hamilton, 6 Kvyat, 7 Gasly, 8 Sainz, 9 Hulkenberg, 10 Norris, 11 Stroll, 12 Perez, 13 Ricciardo, 14 Raikkonen, 15 Grosjean, 16 Giovinazzi, 17 Magnussen, 18 Russell, 19 Kubica, 20 Albon.
Friday form can be very deceptive, but Toro Rosso is looking properly sumptuous here - which could be very bad news from Renault given the Suzuka DSQs have significantly closed the points gap between the two teams.
Norris has got the final sector right this time, and moves up to tenth place. Meanwhile, Gasly virtually copies Norris' Turn 12 mistake and thus fails to improve despite a personal-best S2.
Raikkonen gets in Gasly's way at Turn 1, and prompts an "is he kidding me?" radio message from the Frenchman. Would've been a slam dunk penalty in qualifying.
Replays show Norris running wide at Turn 12 on his big qualifying simulation lap, and this contributes to him ending up only 13th - five places and a quarter of a second down on Sainz.
So it's Vettel from Verstappen, Leclerc, Bottas and Hamilton - with Kvyat, as the best of the mid-pack runners, just two tenths down on the second Mercedes.
Hamilton's soft-tyre qualifying simulation lap is not fantastic at all - like Bottas, he sheds half a second in the first sector, but he then sheds an additional four tenths over the rest of the lap.
Kvyat bangs in the fifth-fastest time on softs. The Toro Rosso is looking quite nifty around here - although Gasly seems to be struggling to improve on softs compared to mediums.
And Bottas' soft-tyre lap is six tenths down on Vettel, with most of the damage (half a second) done in the first sector - which, of course, is where the big straight is.
Verstappen, on fresh softs, is quicker than the Ferraris in the second and third sectors, but comes up 0.115s short of Vettel over the line.
A fair few midfield drivers have already given softs a shot, too, but it's the medium runners - Gasly in fourth and Sainz in sixth - at the head of the 'Class B' pack still.
Leclerc's second attempt on the softs ends up over a second and a half slower than his first - and Vettel's looks considerably slower too, suggesting the tyres aren't holding up at all.
A tidier lap comes in from Vettel, as the German strings together three purple sectors and dips well below the 1m17s range with a 1m16.607s.
Despite a slightly wild exit out of Turn 12, Charles Leclerc fires in a 1m17.072s on his first flying lap on softs. That puts him top by nine tenths.
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