Austria – Free Practice 3: Mercedes, an Unchallenged Domination Once Again

It was after a night energized by Red Bull and Mercedes’ DAS system that the final free practice session of this Austrian weekend opened. In ideal conditions (22 degrees in the air, 46 on the track, sunny weather), Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap at 1:04.130.

A racket hit, a crash in the first corner, and a red flag caused by Nicholas Latifi

The session started calmly before the drivers sprung into action, led by the McLarens of Sainz and Norris. The teams worked on short stints in the first part of the session. Each team displayed its performance on the circuit. Midway through the session, no single driver held the top 3 sectors (Ricciardo the first, Vettel the second, and Hamilton the last). In terms of ranking, Hamilton was leading ahead of the two Ferraris, but the Italian team’s super-soft tires allowed them to stay close on the timesheets. The Mercedes remain dominant at the Red Bull Ring. The rest of the ranking remained scattered with Verstappen 4th, followed by Ricciardo, Bottas, Stroll, Albon, Ocon, and Sainz making up the top 10.

The session was marked by the first red flag of the season triggered by Latifi at the exit of the first corner. A poorly managed throttle resulted in a fishtail sending the driver into the tire wall, destroying the front and rear wings of his car. An accident that does not help Williams’ situation, already financially struggling and now needing to integrate new parts.

More angles on that Latifi crash at Turn 1 ????

The @WilliamsRacing driver is out of the car and ok ????#AustrianGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/UIOv45i8R3

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 4, 2020

After a short interruption to remove the Williams, the track action resumed with Hamilton leading on soft tires, similar to Racing Point. The Ferraris ran on super soft tires to prepare for the upcoming qualifying session. Leclerc set the fastest time at 1:04.703 ahead of his teammate with 20 minutes remaining in the session. However, his time was soon beaten by Hamilton with a 1:04.130, pushing the Ferraris back by 0.6 seconds.

In the second half of the table, the Alfa Romeos were disappointing, slower than Russell’s Williams and Magnussen’s Haas. The Haas team is still searching for performance and settings on a car that seems difficult to understand. The Renault and McLaren drivers battled for tenth place, but the standout performance came from Gasly, who was four-tenths faster than his teammate.