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