Max Verstappen once again set the fastest time in the second free practice for the Grand Prix of Styria. The Dutchman was already the fastest driver in the first session and also finished the second practice fastest with a time of 1:05.412. Verstappen was more than three tenths ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon. Lewis Hamilton did not get past the fourth fastest time.
In the first free practice, Verstappen was a lot faster than the competition with a time of 1:05.910, while Pierre Gasly went surprisingly fast on Friday morning. The Frenchman set a good second time behind Verstappen and was ahead of Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, among others. Verstappen also started quickly in the second session at the Red Bull Ring. That couldn’t be said of Gasly, who didn’t get into action in the first session because Honda would have noticed something unusual in his data. The second free practice started with some raindrops, we heard on Sergio Pérez’s radio. “It’s raining a bit, but the track is still okay,” he quickly shouted when he got onto the track. Not much later, the Mexican braked himself in the third corner, but that didn’t seem to have anything to do with any raindrops. Later Hamilton and Verstappen also shot straight into that corner. There was no serious rain shower afterwards.
Top teams start on hard tire
After ten minutes, Carlos Sainz caused the first yellow flag of the session by spinning into Turn 4. The Spaniard lost control of his Ferrari after hitting the gravel lightly, something that happened to Pérez in the first free practice. Sainz also spun in the first corner in that session. While the Ferrari driver returned to the pitlane, Verstappen battled Hamilton for the fastest time. Hamilton started quickly, but once Verstappen started to pick up steam, the Dutchman was a good tenths faster. Bottas, who arrived late on the track, clocked a time that fell exactly between the times of the two title favourites. That trio was on the hard tire at the time, giving Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel the chance to outperform the top teams on the soft tires. When Hamilton also went out on softs, however, he was immediately faster, although Alpine driver Esteban Ocon surprisingly quickly dived under the Brit’s time. The Frenchman’s fast lap turned out to be good for third place.
Verstappen clocks fastest time after yellow flags
With forty minutes left on the clock, Nicholas Latifi was the next driver to go just a little too wide. Williams’ Canadian hit the gravel exiting Turn 6 and then bounced hard over the grass. Right after that, Nikita Mazepin did the same in turn 4, where Sainz had already spun before. Mazepin also lost control of his car and ended up in the gravel with his Haas. Latifi and Mazepin were able to continue their way without any problems. After the yellow flags caused by that duo, Verstappen went out on the soft tire for the first time. On his first lap he was slightly slower than Hamilton, but then the Limburger set the tone with a fast time of 1:05.412. So he was half a second faster than his fastest time in the first free practice. Daniel Ricciardo followed in three tenths and closed Friday with the second fastest time.
Bottas makes remarkable spin in pit lane
In the second part of the session, many drivers chose to go for longer runs (on hard, medium and soft tyres), which kept the top times unchanged. That meant, among other things, that Bottas was stuck in twelfth place and with that the Finn had an extremely disappointing session. Also, when Bottas came in for a set of hard tires, something remarkable happened. When his team drove away, the Mercedes driver was so enthusiastic that he spun in the pit lane. The race management announced immediately afterwards that the incident would be looked into after the session. On the radio, McLaren called Bottas’ action “ridiculous”. That team’s pit crew could have just as easily been knocked upside down by Bottas, but luckily it ended well. Bottas’ standout moment in the pit lane was about the only noteworthy thing that happened in the final phase.
.
