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Formula 1 Austrian GP

F1 Austrian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying

Live updates from free practice and qualifying for the F1 Austrian Grand Prix

Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21

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And predictably, Gasly has lost that last lap for track limits at Turn 10.
Verstappen heads onto his first flying lap.
Leclerc goes top in the Ferrari with a 1m05.627s.
There was a yellow flag in sector three but has been cleared as Verstappen heads into that split.
Verstappen blitzes the field with a 1m04.941s on his first lap. Just a couple of tenths away from his Friday best.
Tsunoda was the cause of the yellow flag in sector three. He had a massive slide exiting Turn 9 which ended all the way on the outside of Turn 10 via a trip through the grass.
Verstappen leads the field by 0.686s from Leclerc, Norris, Tsunoda, Sainz, Raikkonen, Vettel, Gasly, Latifi and Russell. Just over 26 minutes left to run.
Looks like Gasly has had another lap cancelled for exceeding track limits. He was fifth but has been dumped down to eighth.
Leclerc has gone onto another flying lap but he's almost four tenths off Verstappen in sector one.
Sainz makes a mistake at the last corner and loses the lap, while Verstappen's latest lap wasn't an improvement.
Leclerc aborted that lap too after running off at the exit of Turn 4.
Sainz says to his team that the "tyres game up on me" in the last sector.
Meanwhile, Hamilton is on a flying lap by is 0.280s down in sector one and makes a small mistake at Turn 3.
Hamilton goes second, but he's 0.491s down on Verstappen. Looks like the Red Bull is a far more comfortable ride around this Red Bull Ring this morning.
Leclerc gets things hooked up on his third lap on this tyre and goes third, 0.543s down and was fastest through sector three.
So, Verstappen leads Hamilton, Leclerc, Bottas, Norris, Tsunoda, Sainz, Raikkonen, Vettel and Gasly with 20 minutes of FP3 to go.
Hamilton is told most of his time loss to Verstappen was straightline up to Turn 3. Hamilton responds by saying his Turn 1 wasn't great. Definitely time left on the table by the Mercedes driver.
Further down the order, Latifi sits 11th currently ahead of Giovinazzi, Russell, Perez, Schumacher, Ricciardo, Ocon, Stroll, Alonso, Mazepin.
Hamilton makes a slight improvement to a 1m05.277s in second, but is still 0.336s off Verstappen.
Mazepin has been off at Turn 4 but has found his way out of the gravel and back on track at Turn 5.
Norris has gone off at the last corner as he was on a good lap.
Norris never got his McLaren settled into the final corner and shot off onto the run-off area.
Ferrari has found a little more time, Sainz up to third ahead of Leclerc as the Aston Martin pair sit fifth and sixth - Vettel ahead of Stroll.
Into the final 10 minutes of FP3 now. Perez is on a quick lap on soft tyres.
Perez jumps up from 17th to fifth on that lap, but is 0.548s off team-mate Verstappen at the top of the timesheets.
Hamilton goes onto a lap and is just 0.016s off in sector one.
Hamilton does improves to a 1m04.994s. Just 0.053s between Hamilton and Verstappen now.
But Hamilton has had that lap deleted. He drops back to third as Verstappen improves to a 1m04.591s.
Had Hamilton's last lap stood, he would have still been over four tenths off Verstappen. That's a bit of a worry for Mercedes.
Bottas is Verstappen's closest challenger, but he's over half a second adrift.
Alonso jumps up to seventh, while Giovinazzi has put his Alfa Romeo into fifth behind Gasly.
Just five minutes to go. Hamilton goes onto another lap.
Hamilton being told he's braking too early into Turn 3 and carrying too much speed into the apex. That's costing him around half of his gap to Verstappen.
Looks like that's it for the session in terms of headline grabbing laps with just two minutes to go.
Checkered flag
The chequered flag is out and Max Verstappen heads into qualifying as the driver to beat after topping FP3 with a 1m04.591s.
The top 10 in FP3 are:
Verstappen
Bottas
Hamilton
Gasly
Giovinazzi
Sainz
Perez
Alonso
Leclerc
Vettel
Completing the order outside of the top 10 were:
Stroll
Tsunoda
Ocon
Russell
Norris
Ricciardo
Raikkonen
Schumacher
Latifi
Mazepin
Verstappen puts Red Bull back on top in final practice for the Austrian GP. Here is the full FP3 report.
That's all for now. We'll be back for qualifying, which is due to get underway at 3pm local time.

Hello one and all! So, Saturday afternoon, qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, in glorious sunny conditions - anyone else got a sense of deja vu?

By: Jake Boxall-Legge

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