The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas was third quickest, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. It is the first time this season that Hamilton has topped a practice session. And on first evidence he appears to have done so, leading the way for Alpine, albeit just 0.015secs quicker than Ocon, who improved on his second flying lap to move closer to the two-time champion after being 0.2secs off on his first run. So the leading teams will probably try to use that tyre to set their times in second qualifying on Saturday to ensure it can be their compound for the start of the race.

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