As the session approached the halfway point, Kevin Magnussen was fastest with a lap of 1m24.470s, while the Dane will race for Haas in the final weekend. George Russell, meanwhile, admitted he was a bit confused about his Mercedes as he told his engineer: “I’m not sure what’s going on – (the) car feels OK, just slow.”

Elsewhere, some smoke appeared to be billowing from the rear of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, an unwelcome sight for the team after Charles Leclerc was already penalized ten places on the grid because the Monegasque’s car needed a new energy storage unit on Friday.

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After limping back to the pits, Sainz was able to resume his run and immediately became second fastest – but his lap was still 0.161 seconds off Magnussen’s previous best. But with most of the field putting on fresh soft tires for their fast runs, Alex Albon edged the Haas out of the lead by 0.092 seconds.

The order continued to change as more lap times were achieved, with Max Verstappen reporting that his brakes weren’t working and Leclerc complaining that Ferrari was “nowhere”. However, McLaren appeared to have no such problems as Piastri was quickest with a time of 1m23.433s, remaining 0.193 seconds ahead of his teammate Norris.