Despite the rain disappearing 10 minutes into the hour, the wind and standing water still posed a challenge as the session progressed. Hulkenberg again ran off the circuit, with the VF-24 seemingly experiencing some issues, while others continued to kick up spray as the track evolved.
Max Verstappen suffered a spin as he became one of the first to run the intermediate tyres, briefly bringing out the yellow flags. There was no harm done for the Dutchman, though, who put himself at the top of the timesheets before being pipped by George Russell, also on the intermediates.
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As the track dried out further and drivers started to push more – resulting in further off-track excursions for some – a few took a gamble on slick tyres for the final 10 minutes. Amongst these was Norris, who promptly went fastest with a lap three seconds quicker than his effort on the intermediate rubber.
The Briton didn’t stay on top for long, however, as the times rapidly continued to tumble amid the majority of the pack switching to slicks. After a flurry of laps coming in and plenty of traffic on track, it was Norris who returned to P1 via a time of 1m 12.322s on the soft tyre, putting him 0.201s clear of Verstappen’s Red Bull.
