#StyrianGP FP2: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @danielricciardo. #F1

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the afternoon FP2 session at the Styrian GP ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon to who completed the top three. Verstappen’s title-rival Lewis Hamilton had his lap-time deleted due to a track limits violation.

After setting the morning benchmark in FP1, Verstappen emerged the early leader in the second session, trading quick times on the C2 white-marked harder compound with Mercedes’ Hamilton.

Drivers kept watch on the weather with an 80% chance of rain, but managed to do all their running on slick tyres with only a few drops of rain falling on the Red Bull Ring.

Verstappen set the pace in his Honda-powered RB16B on the hards before switching to the softs slightly later to Hamilton, who was able to go fastest on his initial run on the softer rubber with a 1:05.796.

Hamilton ended up with a second run on the softs and gained four tenths of a second off his effort, bringing it down to a 1:05.335 – only for the lap to be invalidated for exceeding track limits.

The replays showing Hamilton fighting to keep his F1 W12 racer within track limits at the exit of the rapid right-hander, but as the Briton put all four wheels beyond the red and white kerb, his effort was deleted.

It meant Verstappen – who crossed the line moments after Hamilton – finished top of the time-sheets with his best time of a 1:05.412, which the Dutchman fell just one-tenth short of beating his second effort on the C4 softs.

The invalidated lap saw Hamilton finish the session in fourth place after McLaren’s Ricciardo and Alpine’s Ricciardo both reached the top the in their soft tyre runs.

Ocon briefly held top spot with a lap time of a 1:05.790 before Verstappen went faster, with Ricciardo also jumping the Frenchman to finish the session in second place, behind his former Red Bull team-mate by 0.336 seconds.

The other Red Bull of Sergio Perez and Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas struggled to match their team-mates’ pace. Perez wound up in ninth place, whilst Bottas was 12th after being one of the first drivers to post their effort on the softer rubber.

A scary moment saw Bottas spin in the pit-lane while pulling out of his Mercedes box on colder tyres, leaving his F1 W12 racer facing the pit-wall. The Finn was lucky to avoid the McLaren mechanics standing close by, who quickly helped turn the car around.

McLaren quickly reported the incident to FIA Race Director Michael Masi, reporting it as “absolutely ridiculous” and Bottas could have “taken our guys out there”. The incident is currently under investigation by the stewards.

The other Alpine of Fernando Alonso rounded out the top five and was only 0.037 seconds off his third-placed team-mate Ocon, whilst Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel ended the day in sixth.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished seventh on the time-sheets in-front of the second Aston Martin entry of Lance Stroll who ended FP2 in eighth, Perez who was ninth and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who completed the top ten.

Ferrari suffered another difficult session with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finishing 11th and 13th places respectively. Sainz was lucky to continue after spinning on the kerb at turn five in the earlier proceedings, while Leclerc reported of struggles on his soft tyre stint.

The second Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen was 14th and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in 15th and Williams Racing’s George Russell in 16th place.

Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin ended the day 17th and 18th respectively with Nicholas Latifi 19th in the second FW43B Williams.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was unable to run in FP2 after Honda was forced to complete a long check on the power-train of the Frenchman’s AT02 racer, having noticed irregular data from FP1.

You can see the full Formula 1 VTB Grosser Preis Der Steiermark 2021 (2021 Styrian GP) Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1092/austria/practice-2.html

Click here to catch up on what happened in the earlier FP1 session at the Red Bull Ring.

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