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.”

The repeat incident caught co-commentator Nico Rosberg by surprise. After spotting the flames, the 2016 world champion exclaimed: “It’s on fire again, unbelievable!

“In the corner, there’s a big bump on the ground and all the cars are launching big sparks from under the car, and the wind is pushing the sparks into the track at that point and putting the grass on fire. We’ve never seen that before.”

This was only the beginning of the drama as five drivers were placed under investigation for failing to match the maximum delta time on their out-laps.

Both Mercedes drivers fell foul of the maximum lap-time delta rules, as well as Ferrari star Carlos Sainz. Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll were the other drivers booked in for a trip to the stewards.

The investigation was the least of Russell’s worries though. The Mercedes ace was eliminated during the second part of sprint qualifying after taking the chequered flag in P11.

Hamilton fared somewhat better than his team-mate, crossing the line in P9 just ahead of home hero Zhou Guanyu, who made the final part of the sprint shootout alongside Sauber team-mate Valtteri Bottas.