Hamilton leads the way in both Austrian Friday practice sessions - Mercedes dominate as Red Bull catch up
Published by Christine
It was a scrappy day of practice as drivers got back to work preparing for the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend. Lewis Hamilton led both practice sessions and Valtteri Bottas was third in both. During the morning session, they were split by Max Verstappen – who had a couple of spins through the gravel and brushed the wall at one point. In second practice, it was Vettel who came between the two Mercedes drivers.
Elsewhere in FP1, Sirotkin was in at Renault and Celis in at Force India. Romain Grosjean hit the kerbs a couple of times and picked up a puncture in his Haas, whilst Honda finished with both their drivers inside the top ten – quite the feat, I’m sure you’ll agree.
For FP2, Alonso was kept in the garage for much of the session whilst the floor on his McLaren was changed. Daniil Kvyat also missed out on running after a brake fire on his Toro Rosso had to be hastily extinguished. Mercedes set the benchmark, Ferrari are still close behind and Red Bull appear to have kept their improved pace from the last few weeks.
