Ocon, who endured a disrupted Friday after taking on a new power unit between practice sessions, lamented over the radio that “I don’t think I can make it” to the pits before parking up, forcing Race Control to throw a red flag given the tight confines of the circuit.

A flurry of activity when the session resumed – amid further spots of rain – finally brought the first lap times of the day, with Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto briefly forming a Williams one-two over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.

The sophomore F2 racer, who had gone into the corner too hot and tried to take to the escape road, only to rip the front-left off his car, swore several times on the radio as he said “I’m such an idiot” and “I’m so sorry” for the damage caused.

Verstappen rounded out the top five as the lead Red Bull driver, in front of Sainz and Perez, who were involved in another incident at the end of the session when the Ferrari appeared to be hindered at Turn 15, while Williams pair Albon and Colapinto placed a very encouraging P8 and P9.

Lewis Hamilton was 10th in the other Mercedes, followed by the Aston Martin and RB machines of Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo, and the remaining Alpine and Haas cars of Pierre Gasly and Hulkenberg.

Kick Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu wound up 17th and 18th respectively, from the sidelined Ocon and Bearman, with attention now turning to qualifying at 1600 local time later this afternoon.

AzVision.az

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