Image source, Getty Images

Eight minutes to go and Max Verstappen, currently fifth quickest, is back out on a fresh set of ultra-softs.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Montreal

The Honda engine is reputed to be close to 100bhp down on the Mercedes, and it is still breaking with unacceptable regularity. Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa is not hiding the company’s failure. “We are disappointed,” he said. “From the results point of view of course we need much improvement, from the performance and the reliability point of view. So, yeah, we will do everything. We need to do everything.”

But why can’t they sort it out? Ross Brawn, now helping run F1 but formerly the Japanese company’s F1 boss, thinks part of the explanation is down to the fact that they are out of the F1 engineering loop in Europe.

“They are very hard workers, massively committed to the project but it is very challenging,” Brawn told BBC Sport. “They are very isolated in Japan and (that is not) helping them assimilate more into F1 cauldron of information, engineers move teams and that applies to the engines as well as the cars. If you are not part of that movement you can miss out.”

Lewis Hamilton is told he's doing well in sectors one and two but is losing time in sector three.

"Last corner," Hamilton asks, but is told that's not where he is losing time.

Valtteri Bottas scuppers his latest lap on the ultrasofts with a lock up at the final corner. He stays fourth quickest.

Lewis Hamilton finds some more time as he joins the Ferraris in the 1:12s. A 1:12.926 keeps him third, but closes the gap between himself and Sebastian Vettel to 0.3s.

Lewis Hamilton nudges ahead of Valtteri Bottas to go P3 with a 1:13.078. He lost a chunk of time in the third sector, ending up half a second down on Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton has rarely put it all together in final practice this season and that's looking to be the case once again.

Image source, EPA

Some fans in curly blue wigs are waving inflatable hammers around. They're very excited because Lewis Hamilton is starting a hot lap. Time to see what he's got.

Lewis Hamilton is out on a fresh set of ultra-softs for the first time in this session. Now we should get a glimpse of just how close qualifying could be.

Sebastian Vettel continues to improve at the top of the order as he finds half a second to do a 1:12.572. Kimi Raikkonen has also improved but can't match that time, he is three tenths slower.

This, as we say in Yorkshire, is nowt.

Image source, Rex Features

Not wanting to jinx it, but McLaren - and in particular Fernando Alonso - are having a very good day so far.

Alonso moves up to P7 with a 1:14.018, 1.3 seconds down on the benchmark time. Not bad.

Kimi Raikkonen is back up to P2 thanks to a 1:13.017, just two thousandths of a second off Sebastian Vettel's time.

So very little between the two Ferraris.

Max Verstappen does a good time as a 1:13.527 on super-softs puts him P3, half a second down on Sebastian Vettel.

Tom Clarkson
BBC Radio 5 live commentator

They put an army of road sweepers out on the track last night. It was very, very dirty so maybe that has made a difference. It has a lot more grip now.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Montreal

Image source, EPA

So far this weekend, it appears as if neither Mercedes driver is particularly suffering from the set-up/tyre issues that have plagued the team this year. Hamilton struggled particularly in Monaco and Russia, two tracks with low-grip surfaces and slow corners, not unlike Canada in some ways.

What were his problems? Technical director James Allison explained on Friday: “What he feels is a lack of grip in the car. What we see when we look at it, and when we talk about it afterwards, is that the grip is there, the grip is there, but it’s ever so easy to overstep it and to pay quite a heavy penalty in lap time as a consequence. And that experience that Lewis has had on a couple of occasions, Valtteri has had as well, but in a different direction and at a different track. So we have a situation where we have a car with a lot of performance that is able to compete at the front, but the window in which that performance is available is quite narrow and easy to step outside of.”

He added: “You need to remember that we’ve been on pole four out of the six races, and we’ve won three out of the six. We’ve been there or thereabouts in all of the races. The car has got many strong points to it, but there is some trickiness in the way that it handles, and that presents us with particular challenges when we’re setting the thing up. But there’s plenty we can do in the short term, plenty we can do at each race, and also to improve it over the medium term as well.”

Image source, Rex Features

Mad Pauly: Give Kimi a good car that works for him straight out of the box and he'd easily be WC again

Mark Jackson: A lot of delusional Ferrari fans posting on the bbc page. Yes, Kimi is no.2 and no, he won't win another wc. FACT.

Fernando Alonso, who put behind him a troubled start to the Friday practice to finish the day with the seventh quickest time, is currently P9 after a 1:14.456 on ultra-softs.

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton goes P2 with a 1:13.516, half a second slower than on Sebastian Vettel on the slower compound of tyre.