All drivers headed out on intermediate tyres due to the mixed conditions.Piastri was able to find form and confidence as he took P1 ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Oliver Berman and Esteban Ocon, with his teammate placing in P5 and Max Verstappen in P6.

Norris took over, only for an instant, as he would quickly be replaced at the top by Hamilton with Piastri reclaiming P2 and Verstappen taking over P3.

Alexander Albon suffered an off prompted by the mixed weather, as the second Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda was recalled into the boxes after an unknown issue sprked up troubles in his RB21.

Russell also seemed more confident than Antonelli, with the British driver running decisively quicker than the Italian rookie, clawing his way to P3 as Antonelli's efforts were only worthy of P8.

Both Racing Bulls showed strong pace with Isack Hadjar in P5 and Liam Lawson in P7 being split by Red Bull champion Verstappen in P6.

At the halfway mark Norris and McLaren thought it was time to roll the dice and put the soft tyres on. The first lap was a struggle, as he failed to improve in the first two sectors, but setting a green final sector. After two laps in the C5 for the British driver, Piastri, Franco Colapinto and Leclerc followed suit.

In his first run on the softs Hamilton confirmed the pace from earlier. However as he got ready to finish the tour, he was forced to take evasive action to keep from crashing into the back of Lawson, as teammate Leclerc and Tsunoda took the first two spots with the soft tyres.

With Verstappen topping the charts, Russell moved up to P2, as teammate Antonelli took P5 from Hadjar. Verstappen's advantage over Russell stood at a marginal 0.088s.

Lawson took the lead briefly, as Russell snatched it shortly after the New Zealander. Although Albon would later claim it for himself, Verstappen would put in a statement lap eekling out a gap of nearly six tenths.

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