The grass at turn seven had set fire during the early stages of practice earlier on Friday, triggering a red flag, and the incident repeated itself in between the first two parts of the sprint shootout, delaying the start of the second session.
Explaining the trigger of the initial blaze, Sky Sports F1’s pit reporter Ted Kravitz explained: “Just on the apex of that corner specifically, the cars do bottom out and they are producing sparks.
“And with the wind blowing where it is – so just downwind – I can absolutely imagine that the reason for the fire was that. There was a spark that came off the car’s skid blocks and then travelled downwind a bit and then hit that patch of dry grass.”
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