The Latest Breaking News from Logan Sargeant

Sainz led from the start, with team-mate Charles Leclerc passing George Russell’s Mercedes for an early Ferrari 1-2.

The saga was related to the verdict issued after the stewards investigated Max Verstappen for impeding Yuki Tsunoda in Q2, and which saw the Dutchman escape with a reprimand.

Verstappen set a new, all-time record of 10 consecutive F1 race victories.

Sainz will start ahead of Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in Sunday’s race after the one-hour qualifying session on Friday, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Saturday's FP3 was made more intriguing, and significant, due to the ATA or alternative tyre allocation in place for this weekend.

On his 29th birthday, Sainz topped second practice by 0.019s from McLaren’s Lando Norris in an eventful session stalled by two red flags; the first early on for Lance Stroll stopping with a suspected fuel system issue in his Aston Martin and the second late in the session for Sergio Perez…

Carlos Sainz led the way for Ferrari in Friday practice, although a late red flag caused by Red Bull's Sergio Perez meant the times weren't fully representative of the pecking order.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quickest in Free Practice 1, before Sainz set the fastest time of the day in FP2 at 1m21.355s, 0.019s quicker than McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quickest in Free Practice 1, before Sainz set the fastest time of the day in FP2 at 1m21.355s, 0.019s quicker than McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.