#AustrianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen quickest, ahead of @CharlesLeclerc. #F1

Verstappen Austrian GP FP1 – Championship leader Max Verstappen topped the time-sheets in FP1 at the Austrian GP for Red Bull in-front of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell in a session that was disrupted by two red flags.

 

 

The field of drivers headed straight out at the beginning of the one hour session – the teams’ only chance to prepare for today’s qualifying session at the two races to come.

 

All cars were fitted with the C4 yellow-branded mediums in the early proceedings, with Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso posting the initial benchmark of a 1:09.438.

 

This was soon beaten by Verstappen’s 1:08.656 and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen’s 1:08.501 effort before the former established himself as the front-runner

 

On a long run over 12 tours, Verstappen set a string of fastest laps, with his 1:07.720 rounding out the opening five minutes.

 

After slowing down, Verstappen at first was unable to go any faster, but after another period of an out-lap he was able to go quicker again with a 1:07.496.

 

Just after Leclerc put in a 1:08.064 to slot himself 0.5 seconds adrift of his title-rival, the session was halted due to McLaren’s Lando Norris pulling off at the side of the track at turn six – the long sweeping left-hand corner at the end of the Red Bull Ring’s sector two.

 

Norris, who reported to his team that his engine was running in “limp home mode” during the early stint, said smoke was coming from underneath the seat of his MCL36 racer and the Briton was forced to jump out of his car – and was unable to return to action.

 

The session was stopped for almost ten minutes, after which the Ferrari pairing emerged leading the others out on the C5 red side-walled softer rubber and the mid-session qualifying simulation efforts.

 

British Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz used his initial flyer on the softs to jump in-front of Verstappen with a 1:07.149 before Ferrari team-mate Leclerc, running a few seconds behind the Spaniard, demoted him back to second on a 1:06.650.

 

Verstappen had been the third driver to come out on the softs a short while after the Ferrari duo and then moved back to the top of the pile on a 1:06.302, which featured a big gain on Leclerc in sector one, a more quicker effort in sector two and then Verstappen slightly falling back by the end of the tour.

 

A few minutes later as the session approached the 40th minute mark, Verstappen put in a time which was 0.1 off his personal best effort on his second hot-lap on the softs, with a few other competitors yet to put on a set of that compound.

 

The session was red-flagged for a second time after a rubber strip was lying just off the racing line at the turn six exit, which meant six more minutes were lost as it was recovered and returned to the pits.

 

When the session’s final 15 minutes went green and the red flag ended, the rest of the pack were finally able to complete their qualifying simulation runs, as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was the first to do so.

 

The Mexican, who requested his team to hurry and adjust his setup in the other direction in the early proceedings, moved into fourth place on the time-sheets but was almost a second adrift of his leading team-mate.

 

Perez was therefore demoted down the order as the others improved, with Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton taking third and ahead of Sainz – 0.607 seconds off Verstappen’s benchmark – as the final ten minutes drew near.

 

Russell then pipped Mercedes’ team-mate Hamilton on a 1:06.776, which was 0.474 seconds slower than Verstappen. as Magnussen also jumped in-front of Sainz with a flying lap just inside the remaining ten minutes on the clock.

 

In the closing stages, Perez who improved on his second hot-lap on the softs, still left him 0.830 seconds off his leading team-mate, moved to fourth with a 1:06.838, which followed Leclerc closing the gap to Verstappen at the front of the pile with one final flyer near the end of FP1.

 

Leclerc improved on his effort with a 1:06.557, which meant the Monegasque-driver ended up 0.255 seconds adrift.

 

Perez’s late gain meant Hamilton, who had a late off at the opening corner during the final tours, completed the top five in-front of Magnussen, Sainz and Alonso who were sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.

 

The other Haas VF-22 entry of Mick Schumacher sat in ninth, as AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top ten.

 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel were 11th and 13th respectively as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon sandwiched the pairing in 12th.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas finished opening practice in 14th and in-front of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who was 15th and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who took 16th on the time-sheets.

 

McLaren’s difficult start to the weekend continued as Daniel Ricciardo suffered a recurring DRS issue, meaning the rear wing flap of his MCL36 racer was oscillating wildly at high-speed, as was the case for Red Bull at several Grands Prix in the early parts of the season.

 

McLaren attempted to fix the problem, but Ricciardo was not confident it had done so until the final minutes, where he set his personal best effort – on the medium rubber – which put the Australian a low-17th.

 

This was ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Gunayu making his return immediately after his horror crash at Silverstone last time out, with Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and the aforementioned Norris bringing up the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2022 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1115/austria/practice-1.html

 

---

#Formula1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2022 Preview. #F1 #AustrianGP