In the practice session before qualifying, Sergio Perez crashed his car at a tricky part of the track. This caused chaos as other drivers rushed to set their fast lap times before the session ended. Only Lando Norris managed to set a good time, coming in second behind his teammate.
Max Verstappen, another top driver, couldn’t set a fast time because of the chaos caused by Perez’s crash. He and Perez were focusing on testing their car setup earlier in the session instead of setting fast times.
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc from the Ferrari team did well, finishing third and fourth respectively, thanks to their earlier runs on soft tires.
Leclerc tried to improve his time in the last moments of the session but couldn’t go faster than before. His attempt was disrupted by traffic on the track.
The session was stopped twice, first because of Perez’s crash and then because Fernando Alonso lost control of his car and crashed into the barriers.
Perez’s crash pushed him down to 12th place on the timing sheets, while George Russell managed to sneak into fifth place ahead of Verstappen. Both Mercedes drivers had problems with their cars during the session.
Alonso’s crash happened halfway through the session when he lost control of his car while turning. He spun off the track and hit the barriers.
