Oscar Piastri heads McLaren 1-2 in final practice as Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso crash

Oscar Piastri set an eye-catching pace to lead a McLaren 1-2 in a crash-strewn final practice at the F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The Australian posted the fastest time so far this weekend at Imola with a 1m15.529 seconds to set a new benchmark pace heading into qualifying, with McLaren teammate Lando Norris just 0.300 seconds behind thanks to a late improvement.

• 2024 F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Final Practice Results

Carlos Sainz took fourth ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who topped both of Friday’s practice sessions, while George Russell was fifth for Mercedes.

Max Verstappen was sixth-fastest but ran out of time to complete a soft tyre run. The Red Bull driver was two tenths down on Piastri’s effort after the fastest two sectors before aborting his run.

The session was punctuated by two separate crashes for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Alonso spun off at Rivazza and hit the barriers, bringing out the first red flag midway through the session.

Then it was Perez’s turn to crash in the closing minutes of the session, running wide at Variante Alta before smashing into the wall on the outside of the corner.

The session did get back underway but most drivers were unable to complete their timed-laps amid traffic chaos.

Alex Albon finished seventh for Williams, while Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg completed the rest of the top-10.

Qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix gets underway at 3pm UK time.