#AustrianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen leads @ScuderiaFerrari duo. #F1

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the opening FP1 session at the Austrian GP ahead of Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz who were second and third respectively.

 

 

The hour-long morning running began under overcast conditions, with all 20 cars heading out in the opening minutes – most of the field on the prototype unmarked Pirelli rubber to test this weekend, which features a stiffer rear side-wall.

 

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel lead the field to set the first time of a 1:12.697 on the unmarked tyres, but was soon beaten by the drivers running behind him.

 

Ferrari’s Sainz and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez posted a 1:06.941 and 1:06.752 on Pirelli’s regular hard and soft compounds respectively, although those tyres are a step softer compared to last weekend (C2 whites were hards, C3 yellows were mediums and C4 were softs for the previous Styrian Grand Prix).

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly put in a 1;06.375 on the C4 mediums (now C4 yellow side-walled), but this was invalidated for running wide at the exit of the final corner and so Verstappen’s 1:06.640 effort was promoted to top spot.

 

At the end of the first ten minutes, with the Mercedes pairing running at the rear of the time-sheets, their times were three off the pace as they were on the prototype tyre completing high fuel runs, Verstappen then set the quickest effort of a 1:06.007 as the Red Bull driver continued to run on the softs.

 

The Dutchman came in to switch onto a set of the test rubber, which he used to go faster on a 1:05.558 before the opening 15 minutes were completed.

 

The prototype compounds were swapped out for the rest of proceedings – they can be used again in the upcoming FP2 session, with all drivers required to run 12 laps each on that new tyre, which is expected to make it’s debut at the British Grand Prix coming next on the calendar – and the Mercedes duo returned to the circuit just before the mid-way point on the C5 red-branded softs.

 

Hamilton moved up to third in the order, but caught a slower car at the final corners and lost time, as traffic became a problem in his other attempts.

 

The reigning World Champion and Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin came close together at the right-hand up-hill third corner when Hamilton went for another run on the softer compounds, which meant he abandoned that run and went for another hot-lap immediately afterwards, which the Briton locked-up by himself at turn three and aborted that flyer as well.

 

Hamilton did set a personal best effort during the later running, but wound up down in seventh place and 0.566 seconds off P1, while Verstappen used his flying lap just passed the mid-point of proceedings to improve to the quickest time with a 1:05.143.

 

The Dutchman had both the Ferrari pairing of Leclerc and Sainz behind him on the time-sheets, who both had off-track moments at the first corner.

 

Sainz momentarily locked his front-left on the approach to the uphill right 90-degree turn just before team-mate Leclerc suffered a bigger lock-up with his front-right and ran deep into the run-off area – the Monegasque-youngster later having a near similar incident at the same corner.

 

Leclerc, who also locked his right-front tyre and had an excursion into the turn three run-off area later on, took the C5 softer compound to a 1:05.409, which put him 0.266 adrift of Verstappen and just 0.022 seconds in-front of his Ferrari team-mate.

 

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas also went up the time-sheets when he switched onto the softs halfway through the proceedings, but he set a personal best effort – again on the red side-walled tyre – with 11 minutes remaining to finish fourth with a 1:05.445.

 

AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who had an off-track excursion into the gravel trap behind turn five during the earlier running after dipping his left-side wheels in the gravel exiting turn four’s long right-hander, rounded out the top five.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen took sixth place and ahead of the aforementioned Hamilton (seventh), Red Bull’s Perez (eighth), AlphaTauri’s Gasly (ninth) and McLaren’s Lando Norris who completed the top ten.

 

Norris was one of the few drivers who went into the first corner run-off area, including Mazepin and the Mercedes duo on a couple of occasions in the closing stages – with Hamilton reporting he was struggling with tyre warm-up.

 

Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon finished 11th on the time-sheets and in-front of McLaren’s 12th-placed Daniel Ricciardo.

 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll suffered two high-speed spins – the first at turn six after dipping his right-side wheels into the gravel that was moved closer to the exit kerbs for the 2021 Austrian back-to-back races.

 

The Canadian darted off to the inside of the track and recovered using the grass, which was at the end of the first ten minutes of running, before losing the rear of his Mercedes-powered AMR21 racer at the final corner as he began his hot-lap on the softs at the 30 minute mark.

 

In the second incident, Stroll spun around after running over turn 10’s apex kerbs and lit up his rear-tyres as he laid down the throttle – the Canadian later said the tyres were not at the optimal temperature as he got on the power.

 

Stroll was able to turn around and continue on, taking 13th place and two spots in-front of team-mate Sebastian Vettel who was 15th with Alpine reserve Guanyu Zhou running in the place of regular Fernando Alonso in FP1 splitting the pairing in 14th.

 

The other Alfa Romeo Racing C41 entry of Callum Illot, who was filling in for regular Antonio Giovinazzi in opening practice came home in 16th.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and the aforementioned Mazepin were placed 17th and at the rear in opening practice with Williams Racing’s Roy Nissany (filling in for regular George Russell in FP1) and Nicholas Latifi splitting the pairing in 18th and 19th.

 

You can read the full Formula 1 VTB Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2021 (2021 Austrian GP) Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1071/austria/practice-1.html

 

---

#Formula1 BWT Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2021 Preview. #F1 #AustrianGP