Verstappen put his foot down out of the chicane on the race restart to retain his lead.
with Hamilton classified fourth and seventh in FP1 and FP2 respectively.
were the three drivers who did not record a lap time across the hour-long session.
Asked what he is selling Sainz on when it comes to a potential Williams move.
but it was Russell who took pole position after setting an identical lap time to Max Verstappen in Q3 – but held onto pole after setting a 1:12.
He said: The decision was made a year or so ago – a bit less than a year – to go for what is called a nimble car.