LIVE: Grand Prix of Europe FP3

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Follow the final free practice session from Baku for this year's Grand Prix of Europe, with all the action being brought to you live with comprehensive as-it-happens coverage from F1i.

Friday turned out to be a rather workmanlike 'getting to know you' day as teams and drivers knuckled down and put in the laps to get a proper understanding of this brand new street circuit. With high-downforce twisty sections of the track followed by the super-fast low-downforce two kilometre main straight, Baku is proving to be a fascinating and unique challenge.

Despite lots of minor incidents on Friday with just about everyone seemingly taking to a run-off area at some point in FP1 and FP2, there was only one major accident all day when Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo clouted the barrier in turn 15 during the morning and brought out the sole red flag of the day. Other drivers including Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz and Haas F1's Esteban Gutierrez all had less serious close encounters with the wall, while Red Bull's Max Verstappen, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen suffered sundry technical glitches.

At the end of the day it was Hamilton who came out on top - and by some margin - over his team mate Rosberg. In fact it was a top-five clean-sweep for teams with Mercedes-powered engines at the end of FP2, with Force India's Sergio Perez impressive in third followed by Williams' Valtteri Bottas, and Perez' team mate Nico Hülkenberg in fifth.

With their assorted woes during the day it was a poor day for Red Bull, with Verstappen ending FP2 seventh fastest and Ricciardo only tenth. Nor was it a good introduction to Baku for Ferrari, who never seemed on the pace all day - Sebastian Vettel ended the day in eighth while Raikkonen was only 13th after his late MGU-K issue.

The day also saw some consternation about track conditions, with some of the specially moulded kerbing sections working their way loose in the morning and needing to be welded down. There have been further changes made to the track overnight, with some of those kerbs being replaced by painted sections and adjustments being made to pit lane entry and exit.

What difference it makes to the action remains to be seen. FP3 is where things get serious as it's the last chance the teams have to get their set-ups sorted before qualifying, and starting position is always especially vital when it comes to street circuits. Expect everyone to start pushing hard this morning when the session gets underway at 2pm local time (11am BST).

And F1i is here to bring you every minute of the session live and as-it-happens from trackside on our live page. You won't need to miss out on a thing!

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.