AUSTRIAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest by three tenths in practice from Oscar Piastri
Max Verstappen was fastest by nearly three-tenths in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix, the time champion going ahead of Oscar Piastri. Lando Norris who has been the most consistent challenger to Verstappen once again looked quick however backed out halfway through what was shaping up to be a competitive lap but backed out of it after an error at Rauch leaving him thirteenth.
Verstappen brought out the red flag just past the halfway stage when Verstappen stopped on the run to Lauda with what he called an “engine fault” that developed after he had run wide and then made a steering switch change to his high-speed differential settings.
His RB20 then lost drive and Verstappen could not coax it back into life before halting it on the pit straight and then letting it roll back down the hill towards a gap in the pitwall, as the red flags flew.
It was a concerning moment for Red Bull as the Dutchman is already on the verge of a grid penalty for excessive engine usage as a result of a failure in Canada two races ago, which took him up to the limit of four engines for a season. But after he was wheeled back to the pits the team managed to restart the car and he completed the rest of the session without problem.
McLaren has introduced a new front wing for this weekend which they hope will further improve their performance, especially in slow-speed corners. Piastri going just under a tenth faster than the Ferrari’s with Charles Leclerc who was ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz by seven hundredths.
The only practice session of the weekend saw Verstappen improve his lap by two and a half seconds, with his best time being 05.685. Mercedes looked also be in the hunt, Lewis Hamilton going fifth just over half a second off Verstappen’s session-topping time and nearly half a tenth ahead of Esteban Ocon.
but his early speed will be encouraging as Mercedes continues to show strong form after podiums in Canada and Spain. Mercedes didn’t do a qualifying simulation, but the early signs are they will be up there with Red Bull and McLaren this weekend.
In the middle part of the session they had gone fastest with Hamilton ahead of George Russell. Who could only manage eighth a tenth and a half behind the seven-time champion, after going wide at AMG As.
Russell abandoned his soft run also after a Sauber held him up at Rauch. Ocon was eight-hundredths faster than Lance Stroll, Russell slotted into eight going nearly a tenth faster than Yuki Tsunoda, nearly collided with a slow-moving Williams at the final corner, who while Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.
Pierre Gasly missed out on the top ten by over a tenth, as he put his Alpine half a tenth ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Norris’s mistake left him thirteenth ahead of both Sauber’s, Guanyu Zhou was just six thousandths faster than teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Daniel Ricciardo was sixteenth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg by four thousandths, Alex Albon spilt the Haas’s going a tenth and a half faster than Kevin Magnussen with Logan Sargeant completing the field.