#F1 #AustrianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets despite causing red flag.

Verstappen Austrian GP FP1 – Championship leader Max Verstappen topped the time-sheets despite causing a red flag in the sole practice session ahead of the Sprint Qualifying at the Austrian GP.

Verstappen set the session-topping benchmark of a 1:05.685 on the C5 red side-walled soft compounds and was 0.276 seconds quicker than McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who was second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was a further 0.370 seconds adrift of the Dutchman in third.

In a busy opening third of the proceedings of the only practice session of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring within the Sprint format, Verstappen registered the opening benchmark of a 1:07.961, before Mercedes pairing George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton whittled it down along with the Red Bull driver as their opening stints went on.

The Mercedes F1 W15 entries used the C3 white-marked hard rubber whilst Verstappen stuck the C4 yellow-branded mediums, although the Dutchman spent the majority of the opening third making setup changes in the pits.

By the time everyone was back in the pits at the 20^th-minute mark, Hamilton lead from team-mate Russell setting a 1:05.254 with Verstappen third in the order.

After a brief lull of action, the field headed out with the leaders focusing on long race run data gathering and lapping a few seconds off the pace.

At the start of his hot-lap, Russell suffered a lock-up and went off at the uphill turn three right-hander before continuing on his way.

But the session was then halted by a red flag just past the midway point of proceedings when Verstappen stopped on the rundown to turn one with what the Dutchman called an “engine fault” that developed after he ran wide at the opening corner and then made a steering switch change to high-speed differential settings.

His Honda-RBPT-powered RB20 racer lost drive and Verstappen could not fire it back into life before stopping it on the main-straight and then letting it roll back down the hill towards a gap in the pit-wall as the red flags were waved.

The marshals pushed Verstappen back into the pit-lane and he returned to his Red Bull garage before the session resumed after a five-minute wait.

After this, the Milton Keynes based-outfit was able to get Verstappen back out swiftly having checked the car and discovered a sensor had shut off and the engine could be quickly reset, and the long-running continued, with little action to note – bar Alpine’s Pierre Gasly suffering an off-track excursion at the turn-three run-off area after locking the front-right aboard his A524 racer.

A second break in action preceded a qualifying simulation stint on the softs in the final 10 minutes, where Leclerc sent his SF-24 entry to the top with a 1:06.055.

The Monegasque was then demoted by Verstappen’s 1:05.685, which stood as the session’s best effort.

Russell’s flying lap was aborted after he got impeded by a Sauber at turn four, where just a few minutes before the end McLaren’s Lando Norris suffered a lock-up and slipped into the turn four gravel trap, just as the Briton as the best sector one effort.

This left his McLaren team-mate Piastri to remain second as he pipped Ferrari’s Leclerc, and was 0.276 seconds off the Dutchman, whilst Hamilton did not complete a soft-tyre lap and concentrated on the harder compound to take fifth behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon took sixth and ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who placed seventh.

Mercedes’ Russell was eighth as RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten.

BWT Alpine F1 Team Pierre Gasly finished outside the top ten in 11^th and place and ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who took 12^th and the aforementioned McLaren of Lando Norris placed 13^th in the classification.

Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas ended the only practice session 14^th and 15^th respectively and in-front of RB’s Daniel Ricciardo who took 16^th.

Williams Racing pairing Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant were 17^th and brought up the rear as Haas F1 duo Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen split the two in 18^th and 19^th respectively.

You can see the full Formula 1 Qatar Airways Austrian Grand Prix 2024 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1239/austria/practice-1.html

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