Red Bull driver Max Verstappen topped the timesheets during Friday’s only practice session ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix. Despite a mid-session issue that saw him stop on track, Verstappen led the way from McLaren rival Oscar Piastri and the two Ferraris.
With the Sprint format in play for the third time this season, following China and Miami, drivers and teams had just one hour to acclimatise to the Red Bull Ring and prepare their cars for Sprint Qualifying.
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The session saw extensive use of the three Pirelli tyre compounds selected for the weekend: the white-marked C3 hard, the yellow-marked C4 medium, and the red-marked C5 soft, which is the most aggressive combination from their 2024 range.
Mercedes started strong, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell setting the early pace on hard tyres, while the medium-shod Red Bulls of Verstappen and Sergio Perez followed closely.
Midway through the session, Verstappen’s car ground to a halt on the start/finish straight due to an “engine fault,” bringing out the red flags. This raised concerns as he had moved on to his fourth power unit in Spain. However, after his car was moved back to the pit lane, Red Bull managed to reset and send Verstappen back out, allowing the reigning world champion to gather more data.
In the final 10 minutes, drivers switched to soft tyres, with Verstappen setting the fastest time of 1m 05.685s, a couple of tenths ahead of Piastri. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz secured P3 and P4 for Ferrari.
Mercedes slipped down the order, with Hamilton opting to stay on hard tyres and finishing fifth, while Russell encountered traffic and ended up eighth.
Esteban Ocon led the Alpine charge in sixth place after some promising recent performances for the Enstone team, followed by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Russell, and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who dealt with steering column issues.
Fernando Alonso made it two Aston Martins in the top 10, with Pierre Gasly and Perez next up in 11th and 12th. Lando Norris finished 13th in his McLaren after a late promising lap on softs was compromised by a trip through the Turn 4 gravel.
The Sauber pair Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas took P14 and P15, followed by Daniel Ricciardo’s RB, and the Haas and Williams cars of Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, and Logan Sargeant.
Austrian GP FP1 Results
2024 Austrian Grand Prix FP1, 28 June 2024
Source: formula1.com
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