Competitive weekend in store at the Red Bull Ring with five different teams finishing in the top six; Valtteri Bottas in bizarre pit lane spin which stewards are investigating
Saturday 26 June 2021 16:20, UK
Red Bull's Max Verstappen topped his second practice session in a row at the Styrian GP but Lewis Hamilton also showed Mercedes' speed by setting a quicker time before a lap deletion.
In a competitive session that saw the top six positions on the timesheet occupied by five different teams, Verstappen posted the quickest lap that counted around the Red Bull Ring of a 1:05.412.
Hamilton finished fourth quickest but had lapped 0.077s faster than Verstappen's benchmark before the effort was deleted by Race Control for a track limits infringement at the final corner.
Daniel Ricciardo was a strong second for McLaren, with Esteban Ocon third in the first of two Alpine cars in the top five. Sebastian Vettel was sixth for Aston Martin.
The day's most bizarre moment belonged to Valtteri Bottas, who spun in the pit lane after losing control of his Mercedes exiting the team's pit box.
He was later handed a three-place grid penalty by stewards for "dangerous driving".
Fortunately, the Mercedes did not hit anything and the Finn, with the help of the nearby McLaren pit crew, was able to get back on his way.
"We tried something different getting out from the box and there were some variables to what we normally do with the wheelspin, so that's why I spun," said Bottas, who finished only 12th fastest after completing his qualifying simulation earlier than anyone else."
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who also spun in the opening session, and Haas' Nikita Mazepin had more conventional spins out on circuit during the afternoon's running.
But Friday afternoon proved a write-off for Pierre Gasly, the morning's second-fastest runner, due to an engine issue on his AlphaTauri after Honda engineers identified something in the data after P1.
Less than a week after a hugely-competitive race day in France, when Verstappen and Hamilton's latest duel was settled in the Dutchman's favour on the race's penultimate lap, the two teams appear set to be pitched into more close combat in Austria, which is staging two consecutive race weekends.
Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by 12 points in the standings, was pleased with how his Red Bull handled on Friday, but also noted he would have finished second fastest had his rival's best lap not been taken away.
"Lewis was faster but his lap time got deleted so it looks a bit different than what is shown at the moment," remarked Verstappen.
"But, overall, it has been quite good for us. A few things to look into but I'm quite happy where the car is at the moment.
"We will see what the weather will do, but I think overall it will be very tight."
For his part, Hamilton appeared more content with his W12 than the opening day in France last Friday. But he stressed Red Bull's pace remained ominously strong for Mercedes to tackle.
"Work in progress," said the seven-time champion. "The track is awesome.
"I think we were a little bit down, particularly over a single lap, but generally over the day the car felt relatively solid. Some weaknesses and, as I said coming into the weekend, losing on the straight a considerable amount, so we've got to keep working to try and rectify that.
"It's very close with the whole pack; the Red Bulls definitely will be really hard to beat. I think they've just got the edge - maybe more, we don't know what they're going to do when they turn that engine up.
"Happier with where we got the car to. I've been working flat out all week trying to understand where I wanted to put the car. I'm hopeful the hard work starts paying off soon."
With Red Bull on a run of three straight victories, Hamilton admitted: "They are throwing some really good punches right now, so we've got to have our guards up and make sure we're ready for the return."
