The seven-time world champion pun twice in quick succession just before the climb leading onto the pit straight, but was able to continue without any damage, aside from a flat spot on his tyres.

Hamilton ultimately finished the session in 19th, second-to-last, just behind his teammate and only ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, whose session had been disrupted by his early incident.

It’s worth noting, however, that Ferrari deliberately chose not to run a qualifying simulation, saving an extra set of tyres ahead of this evening’s sprint qualifying.

McLaren stole the spotlight in the first and only practice session, with Lando Norris pulling off a late flourish to edge ahead of his teammate by just 0.023 seconds after running behind for most of the session.

It was a tricky session for Red Bull as well, with Max Verstappen struggling to get comfortable in the RB21 and aborting his only soft-tyre run. Yuki Tsunoda also had a rough start, hitting the barriers early in the session, though he managed to return to the pits with some damage to both the front and rear wings.