Sainz took over the lead from Alpine's Esteban Ocon, who had been fastest in the morning session, with some 90 minutes to go in the session. The Spaniard first set a 1m33.943s on yellow-marked medium tyres, before lowering his benchmark to a 1m33.532 on softer C4 tyres from Pirelli.
Soon after, Aston Martin's Lance Stroll followed Sainz through to P2 with a 1m34.064s on the same soft compound.
