Max Verstappen fires a qualifying attempt and takes the Red Bull to 1’06 “302 with the soft tire, before devoting himself to a short race simulation aimed at tomorrow’s Sprint Race. The world champion wanted to give a demonstration of strength in the first and last free practice session of the Austrian GP that precedes qualifying scheduled for the afternoon.
Red Bull feels the responsibility to make a good impression on the home track, especially as Verstappen has already found his orange grandstand full, ready to cheer him on. The Dutchman did not want to disappoint expectations, while his teammate Sergio Perez did not go beyond fourth place: the Mexican, who did a different job, struggled to get within half a second of the world championship leader.
Charles Leclerc with Ferrari is second two tenths off the RB18 with a time of 1’06 “557 obtained with the reds. The Monegasque seemed at ease with the F1-75 which struggles a bit in the central sector of the Short track of Spielberg. Carlos Sainz did not find a clean flying lap: the winner of Silverstone finished seventh (half a second behind Charles) and asked for changes in the set-up both in front and behind, a sign that he was not with the red that was deliberated by the simulator work.
And then George Russell is third in good shape with Mercedes: the Englishman climbed a tenth and a half behind Ferrari, managing to stand out with the soft on the second lap launched, a sign that the silver arrows at Spielberg are not they seem to suffer from the usual hopping, being able to preserve the tires.
The surprise of the round is certainly Kevin Magnussen sixth with the Haas ahead of Sainz’s Ferrari. The Dane is 53 thousandths behind Lewis Hamiltom’s Mercedes, but the seven-time world champion worked harder for the race than for the flying lap, which was left to Russell.
Fernando Alonso is eighth, but the Spaniard did not mount the softer compound tires: the Asturian was the only one together with Esteban Ocon to dedicate himself only to a medium train, finding a competitive pace with the yellow that could be the garetta tire. Fernando, all things being equal, left Ocon in 12th place with a gap of almost four tenths. The Alpine seems to adapt very well to the characteristics of the Austrian track.
The good day of the Haas is completed by the ninth place of Mick Schumacher who seems to have unlocked himself at Silverstone: the German finished the top 10 ahead of Yuki Tsunoda with the best AlphaTauri, as Pierre Gasly worked for the race and not the qualifications and he settled for an anomalous 16th place.
The two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel are 11th and 13th: the novelty is the Canadian ahead of the German with the revised and corrected AMR22.
Valtteri Bottas unmarked the Ferrari 066/7 engine number four and will therefore go into a penalty starting from the back of the grid on Sunday and not at the Sprin Race grid, which is why he tried a lap without too much success, while Guanyu Zhou is returned to driving after the terrible accident on Sunday at Silverstone: the Chinese checked that his Alfa Romeo was properly rebuilt and regained confidence with an F1 after the frightening English roll-over.
Alexander Albon gave the measure of the value of the new Williams, saved in the crash in Great Britain: the Anglo-Thai is 15th, but the figure that most convinces the Grove team is the gap of six tenths given to Nicholas Latifi on the track with the old FW44.
McLaren bad: Daniel Ricciardo was unable to turn regularly because his movable flap began to flicker when opened by the DRS.
Two stops determined by the red flag: after twenty minutes the shift was stopped by the problem that blocked Lando Norris’ McLaren who parked after seeing smoke appear in the cockpit.
Twenty minutes later Valtteri Bottas tore a piece of rubber that the organizers had placed between the curb and the green area further out. The marshals then proceeded to tear the rubbery strip along the entire length of the curb.
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