Hamilton Leads Mercedes One-Two in Second Austrian Grand Prix Practice

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in second practice for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday, with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team team-mate Valtteri Bottas making it a one-two for the German marque.

Hamilton, who had ended only seventh in the first session, set the best time of 1:04.523 to take the plaudits in the afternoon’s running, a session that saw light rain fall in the closing stages.

For the second session in a row, teams were able to test Pirelli’s prototype tyre ahead of its planned introduction at the British Grand Prix, and most took the opportunity to run it in the opening stages of the sixty-minutes of running.

Valtteri Bottas was the first of the frontrunners to complete a lap on the regular tyres, but his best of 1:04.712 was not enough to top the session as team-mate Hamilton went almost two-tenths quicker.

There was a small moment for Hamilton when the rain began to fell, with the reigning champion skating off the track and through the gravel trap at turn four.

Behind the two Mercedes’ came morning pacesetter Max Verstappen, with the current championship leader from Red Bull Racing ending two-tenths of a second down on Hamilton’s best time.

Perhaps the surprise of the session was the pace of the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team, with Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel ending fourth and fifth fastest respectively, while Yuki Tsunoda’s good day for Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda concluded with him sixth fastest, just ahead of his team-mate Pierre Gasly.

After missing the opening session to allow test driver Guanyu Zhou some seat time, Fernando Alonso was back in the driving seat at the Alpine F1 Team and ended eighth quickest, although the Spaniard was not happy with traffic at the final few turns that compromised him on a couple of occasions.

Lando Norris survived a spin at turn one to finish ninth for the McLaren F1 Team, while the top ten was rounded out by Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi, despite, like Alonso, missing the first session as the team gave Callum Ilott an appearance in FP1.

A driver who will be disappointed with where he ended up on Friday will be Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, with the Mexican missing out on the top ten in eleventh, with the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon just behind in twelfth.

Perhaps the most disappointed team on the grid will be Scuderia Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc ruing the late session rain as they finished thirteenth and sixteenth respectively after ending inside the top three in the morning.

Kimi Räikkönen was fourteenth for Alfa Romeo ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, while George Russell led the Williams Racing/Uralkali Haas F1 Team battle in seventeenth.  Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin were eighteenth and twentieth for Haas, either side of the second Williams of Nicholas Latifi.

Red Bull Ring Free Practice 2 Result

POS	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula  One Team	1:04.523		31
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula  One Team	1:04.712	+0.189	34
3	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1:04.740	+0.217	35
4	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:05.139	+0.616	33
5	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:05.268	+0.745	37
6	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:05.356	+0.833	37
7	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:05.379	+0.856	38
8	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	1:05.393	+0.870	34
9	4	Lando Norris	ITA	McLaren F1 Team	1:05.466	+0.943	34
10	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:05.511	+0.988	32
11	11	Sergio Pérez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1:05.516	+0.993	39
12	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1:05.527	+1.004	36
13	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:05.620	+1.097	37
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:05.624	+1.101	33
15	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:05.698	+1.175	32
16	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:05.708	+1.185	33
17	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:05.819	+1.296	36
18	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:05.911	+1.388	35
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:06.014	+1.491	38
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	RUS	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:06.173	+1.650	35