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Carlos Sainz made an encouraging start to the weekend by finishing FP1 as the quickest man on track, with the top six drivers separated by less than two-tenths of a second.
Mercedes offered a glimpse of their potential in FP2, though, as George Russell topped the timesheets at the end of a 90-minute session in which many teams were running a prototype set of next year’s Pirelli tyres.
There was a delay just before the halfway point when Charles Leclerc hit the barriers hard, bringing his day to a premature end and giving his Ferrari mechanics plenty of repair work to do overnight.
Mercedes went on to steal the show again in FP3 earlier today by occupying the top two positions, with Russell edging out Hamilton by just over one-tenth to make a big statement ahead of qualifying.
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