Grand Prix practice results: Hamilton fastest in Austria F1

Both Friday practice sessions have each been cut to one hour in 2021, instead of the previous 90 minutes each. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fastest in FP1 but Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 in FP2.

Austrian Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Leclerc

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	37	1'05.143			238.625
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	33	1'05.409	0.266	0.266	237.655
3	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	33	1'05.431	0.288	0.022	237.575
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	31	1'05.445	0.302	0.014	237.524
5	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	35	1'05.474	0.331	0.029	237.419
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	28	1'05.586	0.443	0.112	237.013
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	32	1'05.709	0.566	0.123	236.570
8	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	31	1'05.726	0.583	0.017	236.509
9	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	36	1'05.726	0.583	0.000	236.509
10	Lando Norris	McLaren	28	1'05.880	0.737	0.154	235.956
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	30	1'05.980	0.837	0.100	235.598
12	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	31	1'06.181	1.038	0.201	234.883
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	30	1'06.203	1.060	0.022	234.805
14	Guanyu Zhou	Alpine	29	1'06.414	1.271	0.211	234.059
15	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	28	1'06.444	1.301	0.030	233.953
16	Callum Ilott	Alfa Romeo	23	1'06.564	1.421	0.120	233.531
17	Mick Schumacher	Haas	29	1'06.583	1.440	0.019	233.464
18	Roy Nissany	Williams	34	1'06.683	1.540	0.100	233.114
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	36	1'06.978	1.835	0.295	232.088
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	30	1'07.316	2.173	0.338	230.922
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 1?

Verstappen set the early pace at 1m05.558s as the majority of teams ran the prototype tyre compound early on that Pirelli brought to be tested this weekend, which features a stiffer rear sidewall.

Pierre Gasly was second-quickest at the time for AlphaTauri, a quarter of a second in arrears of Verstappen using soft tyres. Having languished at the bottom of the timesheets, after a number of his early laps were deleted for exceeding track limits, Hamilton rose to P3 at the half distance mark – despite coming across traffic at the end of the lap.

Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) was quickest briefly before Verstappen went faster again, setting the best time of the session of 1m05.143s with 26 minutes remaining, a third of a second clear of the rest at the time.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz then went P2, 0.288s off the pace, before his teammate Charles Leclerc pipped him on 1m05.409s, 0.022s faster despite repeatedly locking his right-front wheel throughout the session. On his final run with 10 minutes to go, Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) jumped ahead of Tsunoda go fourth fastest.

Kimi Raikkonen was an impressive sixth for Alfa Romeo, ahead of Hamilton – both of whom came across Haas’s dawdling Nikita Mazepin during this session. Sergio Perez was eighth in the second Red Bull, ahead of Gasly and Lando Norris (McLaren).

Lance Stroll had a big spin at Turn 7 on the prototype tyres, skating across the grass in his Aston Martin. Then he spun again on the softs at Turn 10 as he attempted to open a lap, ending the session 13^th, just ahead of Guanyu Zhou, who took over Fernando Alonso’s Alpine for FP1.

Other extra Friday runners were Callum Ilott (16^th for Alfa) and Roy Nissany (18^th for Williams).

Austrian Grand Prix FP2 results: Hamilton fastest from Bottas

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	31	1'04.523			240.918
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	34	1'04.712	0.189	0.189	240.215
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	35	1'04.740	0.217	0.028	240.111
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	33	1'05.139	0.616	0.399	238.640
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	37	1'05.268	0.745	0.129	238.168
6	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	37	1'05.356	0.833	0.088	237.848
7	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	38	1'05.379	0.856	0.023	237.764
8	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	34	1'05.393	0.870	0.014	237.713
9	Lando Norris	McLaren	34	1'05.466	0.943	0.073	237.448
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	32	1'05.511	0.988	0.045	237.285
11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	39	1'05.516	0.993	0.005	237.267
12	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	36	1'05.527	1.004	0.011	237.227
13	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	37	1'05.620	1.097	0.093	236.891
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	33	1'05.624	1.101	0.004	236.876
15	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	32	1'05.698	1.175	0.074	236.609
16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	33	1'05.708	1.185	0.010	236.573
17	George Russell	Williams	36	1'05.819	1.296	0.111	236.174
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	35	1'05.911	1.388	0.092	235.845
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	38	1'06.014	1.491	0.103	235.477
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	35	1'06.173	1.650	0.159	234.911
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 2?

In FP2, Verstappen set the initial pace on the test tyres – which we’ll see used in racing action at Silverstone – at 1m05.773s, ahead of Bottas, Tsunoda and Gasly (both using mediums) and Hamilton.

Bottas went fastest on the medium tyres at 1m05.602s, with Hamilton almost matching him moments later. Verstappen then raised the P1 bar to 1m05.239s, also set on mediums.

Alfa Romeo’s Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi impressed on the medium tyres, both running in the top five before the soft-tyre runs began.

Perez was the first of the frontrunners to use the softs but produced a scrappy lap that was P2 at the time (only 11^th by the end of session) and 0.277s down on his teammate. Bottas used the softs to far better effect, lowering the P1 time to 1m04.712s.

Hamilton trumped that with 1m04.523, 0.189s quicker than Bottas, while Verstappen could only manage third with 1m04.740s after running slightly wide at Turn 9, 0.217s off the pace.

Stroll and Aston teammate Sebastian Vettel were fourth and fifth, showing strong pace on the soft tyres in particular, ahead of Tsunoda and Gasly. Alonso was eighth, frustrated to trip over Raikkonen at the end of his qualifying sim, ahead of Norris and Giovinazzi.

Ferrari slumped in this session, with Sainz and Leclerc down in 13^th and 16^th respectively.

Spots of rain fell in the final 20 minutes for the race simulation runs, which caught out Hamilton at Turn 4 and he took a trip through the gravel.