Qualification for the Grand Prix 2020 of Styria, Red Bull Ring, Spielberg (11 p.m. EST) – After a surprising mix-up on Friday for the Styrian GP – with Lewis Hamilton in battle – the Formula 1 drivers are prepared for an unpredictable follow-up in Austria before the expected rain for qualifying.
The second race of Spielberg’s season opening in a row has had an epic appearance after the Austrian GP last weekend, but the results from training “Styria”, training one and two, indicated a much tighter pecking order.
In hot conditions, the favorite Mercedes was neither on Friday nor at the start when Sergio Perez and then Max Verstappen set the pace – Hamilton was “not satisfied” with his W11 and only finished sixth in second place.
Heavy rain caused chaos during the F3 race of the day, which was on the red flag shortly before the third one-hour training session at 8 p.m. EST due to the wet weather.
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P2: Hamilton is unusually sloppy
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“I think we were a bit worried at the beginning that it would just be the same. We know exactly where the top teams are, where the slow teams are,” said Sky F1’s Jenson Button after two fascinating timesheets.
“But it was such a mix-up today in terms of lap times and long runs, so it looks very interesting.”
Hamilton admitted that in the second session, his car felt “fairly normal but quite far away” before adding, “There’s a lot of work going on in the background to find out why.
“I felt good in P1 and the start of P2, but then it started to fall off. Others out there are obviously fast and Valtteri is obviously at a good pace. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a slightly better position. “
Bottas was only 0.043 seconds slower than Verstappen in the afternoon, although it was still a drop in earnings considering that Mercedes had a hat-trick in training, took pole and won the race at the Austrian opener.
In the meantime, Daniel Ricciardo hopes to be able to repay his Renault teammates with a strong qualifying result after a serious fall in Friday’s second practice session.
Ricciardo turns off in P2
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The Australian lost his rear course on turn 9 at the start of training and crashed into the barriers before getting out of his car.
“I’m fine,” he said afterwards. “I was just hitting my knee on the steering column when it came in. I’m just a little hurt. But they checked it out – literally just a few bruises. All right, I’m fine. “
Aside from the mistake, Ricciardo said his Renault was “feeling pretty good” again and his hopes remain high before qualifying.
“I think we had a pretty slow start to the morning, but a few setup changes and it felt pretty good. I think we’re a top 10 car. We have to find a little more … something maybe not as happy as last week, but we’re there or nearby, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. “
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This appeared in Sky Sports and was republished with permission.
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