The rain makes its first appearance and threatens trouble

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest on Friday of the Austrian GP, ​​at least in his second session, given that in the morning it was his great rival Max Verstappen. The Dutchman, leader of the championship and the man who has won the most races this year (four out of eight) is in such a situation of superiority that he can afford the luxury of not pressing even in the two rounds, even less when it is expected that the performance is very similar to that seen last week.

Playing two Grands Prix in a row on the same circuit implies that teams and drivers must try different things if they want to succeed, and those that were already doing well, just have to fine tune. Thus, in the two free rounds this Friday, many were seen testing with paraffin, with different aerodynamic configurations. Even Pirelli also took the opportunity to bring test tires to this Grand Prix, a kind of derivatives of the C4 compound (which this weekend will be the medium tires) from which those for the next campaign will be manufactured, vital in the new cars.

Both with some as with others, Ferrari seems to have found a certainly optimistic path. After last weekend, they realized that with low downforce they could partially alleviate the problems derived from high degradation. These tests were endorsed in the first batch, in which Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished second and third, with the track under the sun. However, later, with the asphalt colder and slightly more slippery, they did not play it to find a good lap and they were fine-tuning that set-up with different configurations of the ailerons.

The best thing for them was to see that the soft compound and the medium, which are going to be the main ones for qualifying, work for them. This factor is key: they need a good qualification against a race that, if the predictions come true, could have rain. And when it rains in Styria it does it big.

Alonso, one hour less of work

Friday was different for Fernando Alonso. After the race last Sunday, he was already somewhat ironic, considering it unnecessary to compete on two weekends in a row on the same track, since the difference in performance will be minimal. Since he didn’t really want to overrun either, in Alpine they took the opportunity to make his Chinese tester Guanyu Zhou debut in the first free practice sessions.

The young Alpine youth squad left a good feeling: at least he was not wrong, nor did he go off track or have any collision. Which did happen, for example, to his old rival Nikita Mazepin. Fourteenth place and great enthusiasm on the part of a pilot who experienced Formula 1 live for the first time in 2005, supporting precisely the pilot whom he replaced this Friday.

In the afternoon it was Alonso’s turn. The Spanish rider, who already felt comfortable last weekend, did the same on the somewhat colder track and dared to be more aggressive than usual. He even had a little run-in with Kimi Raikkonen, who did not see him in the rear-view mirrors and spoiled a fast lap. “I can not believe it! Do not these guys have mirrors or what? “, Complained the Asturian, who then fell silent when he learned that he was his former teammate at Ferrari.

Beyond this minor incident, Alonso completed a total of 34 laps and finished with an excellent eighth fastest time. “It was good to get back in the car this afternoon, especially when we got on the C5 compound (the softest), as we didn’t have it last week. It was good to test some laps with them both in short and long runs. I think we still have to work to fine-tune the car’s set-up. With these tires, perhaps, we have a different balance. They were a fairly calm Free 2, there is more rhythm to come hopefully “, wished the Spaniard.

Everything can change today, depending on the rain. if it has just appeared, it has been feigning for two weeks without finally exploding.