Verstappen tops single Austrian GP practice after early scare
Max Verstappen recovered from a mid-session engine scare to top Friday’s single practice for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
The Red Bull driver edged McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by a comfortable 0.276s while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were third and fourth.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the pecking order, but the Mercedes driver was among those that did not indulge in a run on the soft tyre in the session.
The field was predictably eager to get down to business from the get-go given that 60 minutes would be the maximum amount of free practice available to teams on this Sprint weekend.
While Verstappen was the first driver to hit the track, Russell and Hamilton laid down the early markers, the Mercedes pair initiating their session on the hard tyre while the Dutchman was shod with the medium rubber.
A taste of the potential chaos for today's sprint qualifying surfaced early on in FP1 when Leclerc got caught behind Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 4.
Leclerc eventually found a way past, but the incident underlined the potential challenges drivers will encounter in this afternoon’s condensed qualifying session.
Meanwhile, Hamilton moved to the front with a 1m6.254s alp that put him 0.1s clear of Russell.
But shortly after the session had reached its halfway mark, there was drama in the Red Bull camp when Verstappen was seen crawling to a halt on the pit straight, his RB20 the victim of a transmission or power unit issue.
The car was rolled back into the pitlane where Red Bull’s crews immediately swarmed the machine, ready to diagnose the failure.
Astonishingly, the Dutchman’s car was up and running again almost immediately, allowing the championship leader to resume his session.
A focus on long runs with 20 minutes to go saw no improvements among the front-runners, with Mercedes’ combo still leading Verstappen and Perez, with Norris in fifth position.
But drivers switching to the soft compound was a clear sign that qualifying simulations were in order.
Ferrari drew first blood with Leclerc and Sainz popping to the top. But both were immediately overhauled by Verstappen who lowered the fastest lap to 1m05.685s.
Piastri then slotted into second place, but Norris’ effort, while it yielded a purple first sector, ended in the gravel at Turn 4.
Verstappen, whose session appeared compromised at one moment, thus concluded FP1 at the top, the Red Bull driver edging Piastri by 0.276s.
Leclerc, Sainz and Hamilton - who did not complete a qualifying sim on the soft tyre - rounded off the top five with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon concluding his session a creditable P6, ahead of Aston’s Lance Stroll, Russell, Rb’s Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso who completed the top-ten.
In the second half of the field, it was worth noting that Perez was once again out of position while Alex Albon’s 18th fastest lap indicated that there was work to do for Williams ahead of Sprint qualifying.
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