The Latest Breaking News from K Magnussen

With the introduction of the alternative tyre allocation for this round, limiting teams from 13 sets of tyres per weekend to 11, the teams attempted to use FP3 as preparation for each phase of qualifying. This yielded all-out times across the full range of compounds, rather than simply bolting on…

With the introduction of the alternative tyre allocation for this round, limiting teams from 13 sets of tyres per weekend to 11, the teams attempted to use FP3 as preparation for each phase of qualifying.

George Russell’s Mercedes was quickest in a rain-impacted Free Practice 1, before Leclerc set the fastest time of the day in a dry FP2 at 1m17.686s, 0.015s quicker than Lando Norris (McLaren) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine).

With two minutes completed and before anyone had set a time, Perez lost control of his RB19 after dipping his left rear tyre on the outside grass through the long right of Turn 5.

Before the one-hour session really got going, it was suspended when Perez crashed on his first timed lap on the medium tyres – the field split across running that compound and the softs at this stage.