F1 qualifying paused as flaming debris strewn across Imola track following Alex Albon tyre fire

Qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was stopped after just three minutes when Alexander Albon's car caught fire and left flaming debris lying across the track.

A small blaze could be clearly seen on the back right wheel of his Williams as his brakes seemed to overheat. After a few seconds, pieces of his car began to fall onto the track causing race officials to call a halt to the session.

"Holy s**t, I just lost my brake pedal," said the driver as he coasted around the track without the ability to use his brakes. Despite that, he managed to make it back to the pits unaided so that his engineers could begin their work on fixing his car.

However, it does mean that, for the second race in a row, the British-Thai racer will be forced to start Sunday's Grand Prix from the very back of the grid. He had been unable to set a time before the fire to his rear wheel curtailed his session.

Not that starting in 20th is guaranteed to stop him from producing a good result when the lights go out in that race. When he did so at the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, he produced an excellent display of tyre management to complete all but one lap on the same set of hard compound rubber.

Nicholas Latifi was left as Williams' only chance of having a driver involved in Q2, but did not get off to an auspicious start as he span his car on an out lap. He had been given fresh soft tyres for a last attempt of setting a good time, but the spin caused huge flat spots on those new bits of rubber.

He did not manage to get out of the session, joining his team-mate Albon in the bottom five along with Esteban Ocon, who did not emerge from the pits in time to set a hot lap. Both AlphaTauri drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly were the other