Pre-Race Recap

 The weekend is already off to an action packed start. Let's recap what's happened so far.

Practice 1 

Once again F2 Prema driver Oliver Bearman joined the session in place of Nico Hulkenberg in preparation for his debut with the team next year. 

McLaren's Oscar Piastri joined the session late - suspected to be due to the hydraulic pressurisation machine being decoupled. Whilst his teammate, Lando Norris, appeared to be having balance issues with the car sliding all over the place. 

Sauber's Zhou Guanyu lost some of the louvres on the left side of his car which can affect the cooling aid resulting in a loss of downforce.

 Carlos Sainz seemed to have an issue around the footwell area of his car which was swiftly fixed. His teammate Charles Leclerc ran off twice during free practice he ran wide into the newly added gravel towards the beginning of the session and later took the scenic root in turn 11 when he began to lose the rear of the car. 

In other Ferrari news, after the disappointing floor update at the Spanish Grand Prix the Italian team has "reworked" the floor with a geometrical modification to improve downforce stability.

Practice was fairly quiet for Mercedes apart from a close call between George Russell and VCARB driver Yuki Tsunoda where Russell was forced half on the grass.

Aston Martin is running the second most upgrades this weekend behind Red Bull. The team constantly alternates these upgrades between both their drivers in order to run a cross comparison test, this weekend all updates are with Fernando Alonso.

Alex Albon's Williams lost some of its carbon fibre floor edge in turn 11. And Pierre Gasly's Alpine bottomed out in turn 4 which is known as a blind spot for drivers. 

The end of the session saw Carlos Sainz finishing P1, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, in P3, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen separating them both in P2. 

Practice 2

FP2 began with Verstappen complaining that his breaks had "no bite". Of course Max always complains about something being wrong with his car whilst still finishing in at least the top 5 so this doesn't seem like much of an issue. 

Red Bull has brought a plethora of updates to both cars this weekend. However, Sergio Perez does not have all of these upgrades on this crucial weekend - missing the engine cover upgrades that gives the car a more sleek profile, that can only be found on Verstappen's car.

Practice was fairly quiet for the first quarter with only a small error from Piastri when he kicked up some of the newly implemented gravel and a strange moment for Tsunoda when he was leaving the pit and drove into the red and green light that was not moved away in time.

The session became more intense when Leclerc hit a kerb out of turn 4 and into turn 5 resulting in his car spinning and the left side slamming into the metal barriers at around 225 kmh. Leclerc was okay but the same couldn't be said for his car, with damage to the front wing, rear wing and most likely the floor as well. 

After analysing the footage, it seemed Leclerc had gone over the kerb causing the car to spin and ending his session with 44 minutes to go.

The rest of the session was mostly uneventful apart from Zhou Guanyu spinning out and almost hitting Perez in the process, claiming that Perez was in his way.

By the end of the session the top 3 comprised of Lando Norris (P1), Max Verstappen (P2) and Carlos Sainz (P3).

Practice 3

Compared to the previous two practice sessions FP3 proved to be quiet and, for the most part, unproblematic. 

Charles Leclerc was back on track after his FP2 crash in turn 4 perhaps with a lack of confidence in himself. His teammate had a moment in the same corner towards the beginning of practice.

It seemed there was already some racing going on in this session, with Carlos Sainz cutting off Hulkenberg to secure track position. 

Verstappen appeared to be confused with his car as he explains that some corners he has understee but also does not have masses of rear grip.

Pierre Gasly ran wide into the run off area of turn 9 with complaints of his front brakes. Lewis Hamilton also had issues in turn 9, spinning out there after fighting the car all the way through turn 8 - luckily no damage.

The rest of the session was smooth sailing except when Verstappen locked up and ran wide just before the end.

The final results consisted of a McLaren 1 and 2, Lando and Oscar respectively, followed by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

Qualifying

With a wet track and rain approaching Q1 was off to an interesting start. Drivers were attempting to set early laptimes in order to avoid the impending rain.

Sargeant damaged his front wing after a lock up under heavy breaking, luckily for him it's easily replaceable and he was in a safe position at P5. 

Sergio Perez was out in Q1 again after he lost the rear on slippery kerbs and spun out into the barriers resulting in a red flag - not the result he needed this weekend.

Even though Ricciardo was stuck in the garage with brake issues when the track was at his best, he managed to set the best lap time in Q1 just before the chequered flag, although George Russell missed the mark, finishing in P17.

Eliminated: 16^th Sergio Perez, 17^th George Russell, 18^th Zhou Guanyu, 19^th Esteban Ocon, 20^th Pierre Gasly.

Q2 was uneventful with the following drivers being eliminated: 11^th Hulkenberg, 12^th Bottas, 13^th Albon, 14^th Sargeant, 15^th Magnussen.

The track was beginning to dry in Q3 so drivers were trying to put in lap times before the rain started again - which it did with 5 minutes to go. 

The rain caused the kerbs to become slippery which is why Tsunoda crashed at the exit of turn 5 and launched into the run off area catching grass on the bottom of the car causing it to lift before finally crashing into the barriers and ending his session.

The sessions end saw Lando Norris taking pole position and his teammate Oscar Piastri in P2, whilst Max Verstappen secured P3 for Red Bull.