Leclerc quickest in disrupted FP2 after Sainz, Hulkenberg crashes

The two incidents left only a quarter of an hour of real running at the end of the session, in which Leclerc posted a 1m24.809s to fire his way up to the top of the order – then at the expense of the two Alfa Romeos who had opened the last-gasp soft-tyre running with good pace.

Prior to the red flags, George Russell had landed on top of the pile to reprise his position from FP1 with a 1m25.906s on the medium tyre, which allowed him to overhaul brief headliner Kevin Magnussen by half a second.

Carlos Sainz’s snap on the entry to Turn 3 pitched his Ferrari into the wall, producing a red flag after eight minutes had elapsed. The Spaniard felt that dirty air from the car ahead and a bump during the right-hand bend was to blame for the incident.

This sapped away at worthwhile running for the 10 drivers who had missed FP1, as they took a back seat in a last-ditch effort to fulfil the rookie driver regulations for free practice sessions.

This caused a lengthy delay as track workers had to repair the affected Tecpro barrier, which prompted a 27-minute pause in proceedings.

When the session was resumed with 25 minutes left on the clock, it was paused once again three minutes later as Hulkenberg hit the wall at Turn 1 after losing the rear on the exit kerb and going into the opposite Armco barrier backwards.

This delay was mercifully shorter than the first and yielded 16 minutes of further action as drivers sought to collect the last vestiges of running available.

Lando Norris set a 1m25.625s on the medium tyre to vault to the top and then quickly dispatched by his soft tyre-shod team-mate Oscar Piastri’s effort.

The two Alfa Romeos then swept to the top, with Valtteri Bottas placing his car at the zenith of the order with a 1m25.024s on the softs, with Zhou a further three tenths behind. The two were split by Pierre Gasly, before they were relegated down a position by Leclerc’s 1m24.809s.

Norris improved to a 1m24.852s to claim second on the timing board, while Max Verstappen was third fastest having been just over a tenth shy of the McLaren.

Verstappen was visibly aggrieved on the first restart to the session with the Williams duo attempting to blend into the queue to leave the pitlane, asking for their actions to be reported.

He then bravely threaded his car past the two Mercedes in…