Sebastian Vettel ensured that Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport could not enjoy a clean sweep in Free Practice for the Austrian Grand Prix, setting the pace in FP3 for Scuderia Ferrari.
Vettel’s time of a 1 minute 04.159, set on the ultra-soft tyres, was enough to pip Lewis Hamilton by less than three-hundredths of a second, with Valtteri Bottas a tenth behind in third. Kimi Räikkönen improved on his Friday showing with fourth, as Max Verstappen took fifth.
But, there are major concerns for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing ahead of qualifying as Verstappen ground to a halt on the exit of Turn 5 with a suspected electrical failure.
Showing vast improvements from his performance yesterday, Räikkönen set the early pace on a sparsely occupied track – times starting in the mid 1:05 range. His lead failed to last, Vettel beating him on his first attempt by 17 thousandths, as Bottas and Hamilton settled into third and fourth respectively. At the end of the first runs, the top four were separated by less than two-tenths.
Vettel looked set to increase his advantage at the top before Hamilton improved to first a third of the way into the session, two-hundredths of a second quicker. Both drivers saw their laps compromised for one reason or another; Vettel hit traffic, whilst the front end of the Mercedes seemed to desert Hamilton in the final sector, a rare sight this weekend.
Moments later, Bottas edged ahead of Hamilton and stayed there until a frantic final 20 minutes saw the top of the order change with regularity. Räikkönen looked set to make the first move, with a purple second sector, before running onto the gravel trap at the Turn 7 and 8 chicane and throwing away his hard work.
He atoned for his error on his second effort, with a 1:04.470, but Vettel immediately shot back ahead of his team-mate by three-tenths. Bottas came close, briefly, before the German improved further – closing in on a sub-64 second lap. Hamilton, who saw his first attempt halted by traffic in the final sector, assumed the chase ahead of Bottas, getting within three-hundredths as the session entered into its final quarter.
The yellow flags brought out by Verstappen’s electrical woes and a seemingly total gearbox failure for Charles Leclerc‘s Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team car ended the fast running.
Both Red Bull drivers waited until the halfway mark of the hour to emerge, believed to be conserving engine mileage. Daniel Ricciardo had to settle for sixth, worryingly for the Austrian team their drivers were seven and eight-tenths down on the ultimate pace.
Continuing on from their positive Friday afternoon, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen assumed the ‘best of the rest’ tag in seventh and eighth. Crucially, both Haas F1 Team cars stood within a second’s gap to Vettel’s time. Carlos Sainz Jr. and Leclerc rounded out the top ten, but the Monégasque driver faces a nervy wait ahead of qualifying.
For the third time this weekend, Nico Hülkenberg could not make the top ten and join his Renault Sport Formula 1 Team colleague – ending up in eleventh ahead of Pierre Gasly. The Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda driver endured another session plagued with problems, he was told to back off of “full throttle application” before spending 15 minutes in the garage. His team-mate, Brendon Hartley, also needed some emergency repairs after clattering the kerbs at Turn 9 and shedding his left front wing endplate; he finished a lowly seventeenth.
The Sahara Force India F1 Team‘s 200th Grand Prix weekend is yet to pick up, both Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez ended up thirteenth and fifteenth with Fernando Alonso in between them. The Spaniard was four-tenths faster than Stoffel Vandoorne in the McLaren F1 Team battle, whilst Marcus Ericsson and the Williams Martini Racing pair joined the Belgian and Hartley in the bottom five. Williams were around two seconds shy of the front-runners and comfortably last.
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