George Russell finished fourth among the Mercedes drivers, three places ahead of team-mate Hamilton, with the Silver Arrows machines split by Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Perez’s Red Bull.
RB driver Yuki Tsunoda and the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10, with Daniel Ricciardo in the other VCARB 01s, the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg and the Williams of Alex Alban 4 late.
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Kick saber duo Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas finished 15th and 17th respectively, sandwiching the other McLaren of Lando Norris, who drove more of the team’s updates than Piastre but battled what was described as „an asymmetric power steering assist” throughout the session.
Logan Sargent finished 18th in his Williams on his first home grand prix weekend of the season, Fernando Alonso’s second Aston Martin finished 19th and Leclerc brought up the rear of his costly spin.
Following that hour-long practice session, the drivers will now regroup with their teams and dig through the data before heading into sprint qualifying, which is scheduled to start at 1630 local time and sets the stage for Saturday’s sprint.