Can Mercedes sustain the pace in Saturday’s qualifying?
SPIELBERG, Austria—It looked like Max Verstappen would extend his luck by taking the opening Friday practice session for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. But Lewis Hamilton turned the tables in the afternoon run, posting a 1:04:523 fastest time of the day. Valtteri Bottas’s fine performance gave Mercedes a 1-2 finish ahead of Verstappen and his Red Bull partner, Sergio Perez, who could do no better than 11th.
Friday’s showing gives Mercedes hope that it can compete with Red Bull, which has been lacking in recent weeks.
The next four placings were like a repeat of Noah’s Ark with the duo of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, fourth and fifth, and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly following in sixth and seventh. Fernando Alonso continued to improve in his Alpine with eighth, while Lando Norris ended up ninth. Antonio Giovinazzi took his Alfa Romeo to finish in tenth.
It was a different story for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc experienced oversteering problems throughout the way, going wide on many occasions. Leclerc clocked in 16th. Teammate Carlos Sainz, Jr. didn’t do much better at 13th.
Rain was present throughout the afternoon. Small spurts came down on the track, with more rain coming with 14 minutes left in the session. Hamilton ran wide at turn four with less than two minutes remaining, and Norris spun his McLaren at turn one, only to recover and continued with his lap.
Rain is in the forecast, too. The threat of thunderstorms and perhaps heavy rain could hamper race day on Sunday.
