Max Verstappen presided over his only Formula 1 practice session at the Austrian Grand Prix, beating former leader Carlos Sainz at the death by 1m05.742s.
On a warm and sunny afternoon in the Styrian hills, Lewis Hamilton opened the session with a time of 1m09.021s but Verstappen soon blew 1m08.094s into the reeds as the current championship leader made the most of the early stages of the session.
Sergio Perez picked up the pace with a lap of 1m07.595s to climb to the top, and although Verstappen closed out the first five minutes with a lap of 1m07.145s, the Mexican clocked 1m07.111s to continue his early tete-a-tete throw at the fastest. Time – both spin on solid compound tires.
Verstappen responded again with 1m06.961s to establish Red Bull’s early monopoly on the home circuit, but this was halted by Fernando Alonso’s 1m06.656s on yellow-walled Pirelli tyres as the Spaniard flew to the top.
Having 0.058 seconds on hand proved enough for Verstappen to regain the lead, before Hamilton smashed 1m06.416s to overtake his title challenger in 2021.
Demand remained relatively stable as the opening half-hour drew to a close, although the top five was later disrupted by Alex Albon’s presence on the soft tyres, following Williams’ decision to drop the opening 20 minutes of the session.
As the session drew into the final 15 minutes, more teams were picked to explore the limits of the Red Bull Ring on the soft tyres, in preparation for qualifying later in the day.
Lance Stroll launched himself into second place, just 0.134 seconds off Hamilton’s time on the hard tyre, but the top three quickly changed hands as Charles Leclerc climbed to the top on the soft tyres. Pérez then moved up to second on intermediate, before the two were beaten by Verstappen’s 1m06.084s on the middle set of tyres.
Sainz then scored 1m05.983s on his first flight on the softs, one-tenth faster than Verstappen, and took the checkered flag with the Spanish driver in front.
But Verstappen’s final lap was good enough to usurp Sainz at the end of the session, scoring 1m05.742s on the medium tire after three build-up laps and setting up a relatively comfortable opening sector.
Leclerc moved into third after beating Verstappen on the previous lap to sit behind teammate Sainz by 0.03 seconds in the timing standings, with Hamilton the only one on the soft tyres, half a second off the lead.
Pérez and Stroll were fifth and sixth fastest, after the Canadian ran over wreckage earlier in the session but suffered no ill effects. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was seventh on the timing boards and had time to indulge in slight discrepancies with Nyck de Vries, who didn’t understand why the Dane moved on him at the exit of Turn 1.
Alonso was eighth in the standings without a soft tire move, while George Russell’s ninth-fastest time on the hard tyre. Zhou Guanyu completed the top ten, just ahead of the late Albon on the session.
Lando Norris backed the table despite having the full fleet of new McLaren upgrades on his car, but he spun out of the car early and didn’t complete the final lap on soft tyres, as the team was spotted fiddling with its front wing.
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