The Latest Breaking News from Valtteri Bottas

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.

Verstappen closed out the opening 20 minutes of the hour-long FP1 session with a 1m22.657s, bettering his previous effort of 1m23.027s on the hard compound of tyres.

Verstappen won – his third consecutive triumph at home to match the record of nine victories in a row – from Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) after rain heavy caused a red flag following Zhou Guanyu’s hefty crash at Turn 1 required a five-lap sprint to the…

The Dutchman punched in a 1m10.567s lap, which remained untouchable in the final moments of Q3 to ensure a third consecutive pole at his local race to the delight of his fans.

Verstappen will start ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren) and George Russell (Mercedes) 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.

At 2.65 miles, the seaside venue is the second shortest on the calendar behind only Monaco.

A rapid-fire final 10 minutes, produced by improving track conditions as the morning's heavy rain subsided, ended with Verstappen embarking on a series of quick runs having found confidence on the drying circuit.

A rapid-fire final 10 minutes, produced by improving track conditions as the morning's heavy rain subsided, ended with Verstappen embarking on a series of quick runs having found much in the way of confidence on a drying track.

McLaren's Lando Norris led the practice running on Friday, shading home hero Max Verstappen of Red Bull by just 0.023s.