In the absence of seeing what happens in the classification, Max Verstappen He started the Austrian GP dominating with solvency. charles leclerc it was more than 2.5 tenths, which in such a short circuit is a notable difference. Behind them, George Russellwho left his mark after the disappointing result at Silverstone.
Carlos Sainz, winner of last Sunday, did not pass the 7th time trial. The man from Madrid did not force much and, furthermore, he was one of the victims of the large amount of traffic that there was throughout the session and especially at the end of it.
In the only session of the practice day before qualifying there was little room for big experiments. One of them went wrong McLarensince the single-seater lando norris he failed and was left lying. He caused a red flag for a few moments.
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It was not the only red flag on the track. The second was due to a piece of rubber at turn 6 of the circuit that came from the band that separates the curb from the outside gravel. The batch had to be stopped so that an operator could remove the entire strip so that it would not break any more.
Beyond these problems, it was a session that saw a lot of medium and soft tires. Given that it is the last and only session before fighting for pole position for the sprint, the teams squeezed the time to the maximum.
It was seen, for example, that the soft compound is going to degrade quickly, although they will have to see if it is convenient to risk it for the 24 laps for this Saturday. It does not seem in people like Fernando Alonso, who did not even shoot with this compound and dedicated this hour of testing to checking the durability of the media. This is, in part, one of the reasons why he did not go beyond 8th place.
Free Time Table 1 Austrian Grand Prix
Photos: Red Bull Racing