Leclerc surged to the top of the times in the final third of the hour-long FP1 to eclipse his chief championship rival by a slender 0.09s as Carlos Sainz completed the top three.
George Russell, meanwhile, ran to fourth in the Mercedes W13 – which this weekend debuts a revised nose cooling duct – as track temperatures crept towards 60 degrees Celcius.
His seven-time champion team-mate Lewis …Keep reading