Max Verstappen dominated Friday’s practice at the Red Bull Ring, the only practice session that actually means anything, as Lando Norris and his smoking seat brought out the red flags as too did a piece of debris.
Hitting the front on his first hot lap on the medium tyres, Verstappen relinquished P1 for all of a few seconds and only because Ferrari did their soft tyre run before Red Bull.
He clocked a 1:06.302 to finish first practice at Red Bull’s home track 0.255s up on Charles Leclerc, George Russell was third.
Super Max being played off the track 🎶
Super Max on the track! ⏱
The @redbullracing driver goes fastest by over three tenths of a second 👏#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/PBtFVv9TA2
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 8, 2022
From British fans to Red Bull’s faithful, five days after Carlos Sainz’s inaugural race victory, Formula 1 was back in action at the Red Bull Ring for the start of round 11 of the championship and a sprint race weekend in Austria.
Zhou Guanyu, in a new chassis after his huge Silverstone crash, was one of the first out for an installation lap with Alex Albon, who also crashed heavily, one of the last with his FW44’s parts having either been repaired or replaced.
With just one hour of practice before qualifying, the drivers were immediately into the action with Max Verstappen P1, a 1:07.7, and his team-mate Sergio Perez eating gravel as he got caught out by the Turn 4 tail wind.
Alpine driver Fernando Alonso went second ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Sainz practiced his overtaking against Perez, Lance Stroll had rear wing troubles and Pierre Gasly complained about his car moving on the straights and was told by AlphaTauri that it was because of “very high winds”.
Finding the limits…
And Checo goes over them momentarily into Turn 4 😬#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/h1OY4pHW2C
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 8, 2022
Despite just nine corners in play, Daniel Ricciardo highlight the difficulties of the Red Bull Ring’s corners as he ran slightly wide, mounted the sausage kerb and it was notable how the edge of his floor took a battering from it.
Lewis Hamilton, down in 13th place, had an issue with Mercedes pit wall – a voice that wasn’t Pete Bonnington’s – as he was hit with a barrage of information, including “HPP9 Set Position 1”, and replied that he didn’t understand a word of what was said. He improved to P9 before pitting.
Seconds after Charles Leclerc jumped up to second place the red flags were…
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