Albon makes the time and then slams

At the end of a round that didn't say much, given that the race weekend should be dry, the fastest was Alex Albon. With the Red Bull RB15 he reached 1'16 "142 after performing aerodynamic tests with cameras to measure the flexion of the front wing flaps. Milton Keynes' team, in fact, also tried a nose with a stuffy nose which had already been seen at the Monaco GP The Thai corner in the last ten minutes decided to fit the slick tires following the example of Max Verstappen.

If the Dutch got away with a spin in the downhill at the first corner, it was worse for the team mate who demolished the front wing and the right suspension against the barriers on turn 12 before starting the climb to The goal. Alexander found himself still with the soft cold tires and he ran wide on the grass where the RB15 slipped like it was on the ice.

Eloquent is the verbal call that Helmut Marko gave him as soon as Albon returned to the Red Bull pits. Behind the RB15 came Valtteri Bottas with the Mercedes: the Finn was half a second behind, but he got his performance with green tires when the track was still wet.

The two Ferraris are third and fourth with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc. Sebastian Vettel has tested two different versions of the rear wing: the German had started the turn with the one equipped with the main spoon profile, more discharged, then moving on to the flat one capable of generating more downforce. Seb, at the 100th GP with the Cavallino, did not look for risks with a 1'17 "041 in front of Charles Leclerc who on the second Rossa had the new four engine that he could test on the Brazilian ups and downs.

There are no times for Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen: the two had entered the track at the end of the session with slick tires, but the six-time world champion gave up trying to close a timed lap after the red flag had been interrupted. in the last two minutes for Albon's bang. The Dutch realized that the track was not dry enough after the spin at the beginning of the round launched.

Romain Grosjean (Haas) and Sergio Perez (Racing Point) did not finish a good lap. Behind the top was Carlos Sainz fifth with McLaren ahead of the two Renault cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo.

The top ten is completed by the two Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat, respectively eighth and ninth and by the excellent George Russell tenth with Williams. The Russian was unable to avoid a spin before the main straight line fell off, but he did well with the STR14 to avoid the protections. Russell with the FW42 gave a demonstration of his talent, trimming 1 "3 to Nicholas Latifi his next teammate in 2020 who inherited the car of Robert Kubica.

Antonio Giovinazzi is 15th with Alfa Romeo immediately behind Kimi Raikkonen: the Italian distinguished himself by being the most successful rider who collected 18 laps with the C38.