Max Verstappen I have taken the best time in Free Practice 1 of the Austrian GP, surpassing by 0.2 to Oscar Piastri and 0.3 to Charles Leclerc. Carlos Sainz was fourth, just 0.073 from his teammate, but there are still many unknowns to be resolved in the Sprint Qualifying, which takes place this afternoon.
For a start. Lewis Hamilton first for 50 minutes of the session, he did not want to set up the soft set and preferred to save the set for the rest of the weekend. His companion, Russelwas stopped by traffic in his good attempt and Lando Norris who was improving Macx’s times, went off in the gravel in sector 2. All three will be in the bidding for this afternoon’s ‘minipole’, that’s for sure.
Ferrari seems a little further away, but they are an unpredictable team in almost everything and with a good motor map they usually win a lot when push comes to shove. They cannot be ruled out yet, especially with the heat rising on the track.
Alonso 10th
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll They were at times closing the grid with the hard compound. At the last minute, with the soft one, Stroll got seventh, behind a surprising Or withwhile the Asturian did not have a clean return and He finished tenth, 0.918 behind Verstappen. On the shortest timed circuit in F1, it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to make it into SQ3 this afternoon.
Fernando predicted that Maybe it would be “a worse circuit than Barcelona” and his intuition did not deceive him, although he still has to wait for the timed test to verify it.
Verstappen red flag!!!
Behind the first failed engine in Canada, which Honda has already said is irrecoverablethis morning planned a second engine failure for Max Verstappen’s RB20. With 29 minutes to go the car began to misfire and stopped on the finishing straight, forcing a red flag. There seemed to be dramatic faces in the pits, they stopped in 7 minutes, reset the systems and he was able to return to the asphalt almost immediately. False alarm.
Red Bull immediately said it had been “a minor problem, which we have recovered and for which there is no fear”.
Hamilton and Russell, from the start
With the harder compounds, the two Mercedes They emerged as the best again in Free Practice 1, something that has become the norm for a couple of months now. Behind them Verstappenwith half at 0.3 Lewis, seemed a little far off in speed.
Things were worse for the Ferrariwith hard, but now more than half a second (Charles the sixth), while Alonso was 17th, 1.6 seconds behind the Mercedes. It seemed to be bad news for both teams after half an hour of activity.
There was a small incident between Hulkenberg and Leclerc, which the German called “llorica”. He is not the only one on the grid who thinks the same.
After the first half hour
1st L. Hamilton Mercedes (D) 1’06″254 14
2nd G. Russell Mercedes (D) 1’06″386 +00″132 11
3rd M. Verstappen Red Bull 1’06″645 +00″391 11
4º S. Perez Red Bull 1’06″783 +00″529 10
5º L. Norris McLaren 1’06″880 +00″626 12
6º C. Leclerc Ferrari (D) 1’06″901 +00″647 13
7th Carlos Sainz Ferrari (D) 1’06″987 +00″733 12
8th K. Magnussen Haas 1’07″179 +00″925 11
…17th Fernando Alonso Aston Martin (M) 1’07″905 +01″651 12
