@LewisHamilton heads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two in #AustrianGP FP2. #F1

Lewis Hamilton lead from Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes one-two in the afternoon FP2 session at the Austrian GP with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third.

 

 

After Verstappen put on a solid display in his Styrian Grand Prix triumph with first place in opening practice for this weekend’s second race at the Red Bull Ring, the Dutchman finished third and ended 0.217 seconds behind Hamilton in Free Practice 2, which was hit by rain as the session drew to it’s end.

 

At the beginning, the field emerged on a mix of Pirelli’s unmarked prototype compound, which was brought to be evaluated in this weekend’s opening practice sessions and the usual yellow side-walled mediums, which was the C4 for the Austrian Grand Prix.

 

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz posted the initial benchmark of a 1:06.495, before the Spaniard was beaten by Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen setting a 1:06.304, then Verstappen on a 1:05.773, as the trio all started with the test tyre, which featured the stronger sidewall construction and are set to be used at the next Grand Prix at Silverstone should the data and feedback today be positive.

 

Verstappen improved again with a 1:05.709 as his opening stint on the prototype rubber finished at the end of the opening ten minutes.

 

A few moments later, Bottas came out on a fresh set of C4 mediums and launched his way to the top of the time-sheets on a 1:05.602, which remained the fastest until Verstappen on his own set of mediums struck back with a 1:05.239 effort.

 

A group of cars including Aston Martin pairing Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, along with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly – put themselves behind Verstappen with the opening C5 red side-walled softer tyre runs of the afternoon, before Mercedes sent it’s pairing on the C5’s.

 

Bottas again lead the way for the Silver Arrows, as he reclaimed P1 with a 1:04.712 as proceedings approached the mid-way point.

 

Hamilton’s qualifying simulation stint ended a few moments later left him with the afternoon’s best sector two and three times – with Bottas holding on in the opening sector – and the Briton ended up top of the time-sheets posting a 1:04.523.

 

Verstappen was running behind the reigning world champion, but ended up short on a tour that saw the Red Bull driver crunch the kerbs hard exiting the penultimate turn nine, sparks showered from his Honda-powered RB16B as the front wing and plank clattered the kerbs.

 

After that segment, the field switched to long race runs in slippery conditions as the rain started to drizzle, with Red Bull told Verstappen to keep running to gain more experience in slightly wet conditions in-case the scenario will be repeated in the Grand Prix on Sunday as thunderstorms are forecasted.

 

Hamilton suffered an off-track excursion in his longer data gathering stint, slipping off into the gravel trap beyond the fourth corner – where Bottas reported the rain was having an impact on grip – after the Finn locked his front-right and found the escape road near the barriers to make his way back onto the track.

 

The droplets of rain caught out the Ferrari drivers, who were at the rear on the time-sheets with just over 20 minutes remaining as they waited to post their flyers on the softs.

 

When they did, both improved on their efforts, but Sainz wound up 13th, whilst Charles Leclerc was a low 16th – after the pairing were second and third respectively in the morning, with Leclerc ahead of the Spaniard.

 

Leclerc also encountered a scary moment in the early proceedings of FP2 as he caught a snap of over-steer through the penultimate corner, after the Monegasque-youngster turned in wide from the outside kerbs approach and the SF21 went suddenly sideways, as the Ferrari driver described it as a “scary one”.

 

Behind the front-three on the time-sheets came the Aston Martin pairing Stroll and Vettel who were fourth and fifth with AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda and Gasly following in sixth and seventh respectively.

 

Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso was angered by encountering traffic at the last corner on a few occasions during the afternoon session, as the two-time world champion finished the day in eighth place.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris ended FP2 in ninth and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi who rounded out the top ten.

 

Norris was another driver to suffer an off-track excursion in the latter proceedings, with the Briton spinning exiting turn one after losing the rear of his Mercedes-powered MCL35M racer as he accelerated off the large kerbs on the outside.

 

The McLaren driver spin sideways and onto the inside of the track, where he was able to continue, with heavily flat-spotted tyres.

 

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was 11th place in-front of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who took 12th with the aforementioned Sainz 13th.

 

Alfa Romeo’s Raikkonen ended FP2 in 14th place and ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who came 15th and Ferrari’s Leclerc 16th.

 

Williams Racing’s George Russell and Nicholas Latifi finished the afternoon 17th and 19th respectively with Haas F1 Team pairing Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in 18th and at the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 VTB Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2021 Free Practice 2 Results Classification here at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1071/austria/practice-2.html

 

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