Max Verstappen was fastest in the first practice session for the weekends Austrian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver set a 05.143 on the soft tyre which put him two tenths ahead of the Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc, who was two hundredths faster than his teammate Carlos Sainz.
Red Bull go into their home Grand Prix looking to extend their lead over Mercedes as the world champions look to end four races without a win, the longest time in the hybrid era. Valtteri Bottas was fourth fastest, the Finn was three tenths off Verstappen going three hundredths faster than the Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda.
Verstappen’s fastest time was set on soft tyres half way through the session when Sir Lewis Hamilton went third. However the seven time champion had to settle for seventh after locking up on his flying lap and then being caught out by the Haas of Nikita Mazepin on his second attempt, his final run saw him lock up.
Meanwhile, Bottas jumped up the order after switching to the softs before steadily improving his time to a 05.445 with ten minutes to go. Tsunoda held onto fifth, the Japanese driver made two errors going into the gravel first at Turn Five then Schlossgold.
Mercedes have used the few days between races to try and find ways to improve the pace of their W12 around a circuit that has not always historically favoured them, with Hamilton again returning to the team’s factory to help with the efforts. However, the session was unrepresentative by the teams testing a new tyre for Pirelli.
Following the incidents last month in Baku, Pirelli were trying a new tyre construction aimed at preventing a repeat of the high speed tyre failures. Each driver has to do a minimum of twelve laps on the new tyre during the course of Friday’s two sessions.
Pirelli will then analyse the data and if it is satisfied, the new tyre will be introduced at the next race, the British Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen put his Alfa Romeo sixth, over a tenth ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was eighth, the Mexican driver over half a second behind the Dutchman’s session topping time. Pierre Gasly was ninth ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris by a tenth and a half, as they rounded out the top ten.
Norris, along with Nikita Mazepin and the two Mercedes, struggled at Rauch going off twice after dipping on to the grass before losing his rear in the final ten minutes of the session.
Esteban Ocon managed to spilt the two McLaren’s, the Alpine driver going two tenths faster than Daniel Ricciardo. Lance Stroll was thirteenth, the Aston Martin driver struggling with grip a Rauch and the Red Bull Mobile corner resulting in him spinning the car.
Guyna Zhou was highest of the reserve drivers, driving Fernando Alonso’s car he went fourteenth fastest four tenths off Ocon. The Chinese driver going three hundredths faster than Sebastian Vettel, while fellow reserve driver Callum Ilott was sixteenth.
Mick Schumacher put his Haas seventeenth a tenth ahead of the Williams reserve driver Roy Nissany who was almost two tenths ahead of teammate Nicolas Latifi, while Nikita Mazepin rounded out the field.
