Ahead of today's sole practice session the air temperature is 24 degrees C, while the track temperature is 43 degrees.

Russell was quickest in yesterday's opening session, while it was teammate, and world championship leader, Antonelli who led the way in FP2.

Despite widespread fears of calamity the opening session passed without any serious incidents, however, in FP2 Lindblad crashed out causing the only (F1) red flag of the day.

Lindblad's crash, which saw him lose the rear of the car without warning, was the perfect reminder for drivers not to get too complacent as time and time again we had seen near misses amount to nothing other than a gesticulation and a scrape of the walls.

However, as the weekend develops and tensions rise we can expect more incidents, and traffic is clearly going to be an issue this afternoon and in the early stages tomorrow.

Another issue was track limits, with 48 violations in FP1 and another 46 in the second.

Aston Martin broke the curfew for the first time last night, Alonso having ended the day 17th. At RB, the team has changed Lindblad's chassis.

Mercedes is clearly the one to beat here, but Ferrari, the RBs, Verstappen and Piastri looked good, Norris having sat out the second session with a gearbox issue.

Green light, but there is no movement in the pitlane, not a dicky bird.

In the RB garage, mechanics are still working on Lindblad's car so he won't be out for a while.

After five minutes of nothing, Bortoleto breaks the deadlock and heads out, followed by his Audi teammate. Both are on mediums.

Bottas and Colapinto head out, both on softs, as is Alonso.

Bortoleto posts a 35.777, while Hulkenberg responds with a 35.721.

As Colapinto goes third (37.075), Lawson is the first of the big guns to heads out, the Red Bull drive on hards.

Stroll goes third with a 36.907 as Hulkenberg raises the bar with a 35.721.

Sainz goes fifth ahead of Alonso and Bottas.

As Norris and Leclerc head out, Hulkenberg improves to 34.665, as Lawson posts a 35.602.

Leclerc goes top with a 34.433, but Hamilton responds with a 34.284.

A number of drivers have been noted for failing to follow escape road instructions.

Woah! Sainz does well to keep it out of the barriers at Turn 7, moments after his teammate clipped the wall at Turn 5.

Antonelli goes top with a 33.664, 0.620s up on Hamilton, as Tsunoda goes seventh and Gasly eleventh.

Leclerc retakes the top spot with a 33.322, as Norris goes third.

Norris and Hamilton trade fastest sectors, however the Ferrari driver locks-up and heads into the barrier at the final corner.

The session is red-flagged.

Hamilton is able to reverse out of the barrier and head back to the pits, however his front wing is trapped under his front wheels.

"Stop the car, stop the car," he is told, but he continues.

This will mean a serious penalty for the seven-time world champion who wants to get back to the pits so that his team can fix his front wing and he can continue.

"Stop in the safest place, the safest place possible," Hamilton is ordered. "If I can make it back I will," he replies.

However, he eventually he parks just after Turn 14.

With 30 minutes remaining, as marshals continue to repair the barrier, Albon, Verstappen and Lindblad have yet to post times, while Russell has only posted an exploratory 47.511 and Piastri a 37.687.

Before the red-flag, Russell had been on a hot lap and had gone purple in S1.

Albon will play no further part in the session having damaged the rear axle of his car when hitting the wall.

"I'm a little bit surprised, we have damaged a track rod," says James Vowles. "It wasn't a big incident but we need to change that. It is not on Alex, they need to be on the limit and scraping the wall."
Much to the frustration of everyone, the clock continues to tick down, we now have 22 minutes remaining.

Despite the fact that work on the barriers continues, the clock is stopped with 15:38 remaining. Overhead shots show that in fixing the barrier the marshals have actually made things worse.

At 13:29 (local time) Verstappen's engine fires up as race control confirms that the session will resume at 13:32. In no time at all the pitlane is packed.

Air temperature is up to 26 degrees and track temperature is up to 49 degrees.

Gasly leads the way, followed by Colapinto, Perez, Ocon and Bearman.

As more drivers emerge, with an eye on qualifying, reds are the order of the day.

Gasly improves from 12th to 7th with a 34.971, the alpine driver hampered by traffic in the final sector.

Tsunoda goes seventh and Alonso twelfth.

Lindblad goes eighth on his first timed lap of the session.

Lawson goes sixth and Verstappen second (33.522) on his first timed lap!

Piastri goes second as Leclerc posts a benchmark 32.963

Antonelli goes second, 0.297s off the pace, as Russell goes fourth (33.499).

Sainz can only manage seventeenth, 2.6s off the pace, as Norris goes second with a 33.033.

Despite a wobble, Bearman goes tenth with a 34.481.

Hulkenberg goes quickest in S1, as Lawson goes seventh overall. Hulkenberg improves to seventh, losing time behind alpine in the final sector.