Austrian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Lewis Hamilton steals the spotlight from Max Verstappen

The first 20 minutes.

Antonio Giovinazzi, George Russell and Fernando Alonso returned to their own single-seaters, as their steering wheels had been borrowed in Free Practice 1 by Ilott, Zhou and Nissany.

Many of them immediately put on the test tires, tires that we remind you will be used at the next Grand Prix in Silverstone. With this new tire, Pirelli hopes to have resolved the issues of high-speed explosions like those of Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen in Baku.

The drivers have been warned and informed last week, track limits will be closely examined by the race stewards, especially at turns 9 and 10. We can expect to see several laps being cancelled during Saturday’s qualifying session. Another sensitive point of this qualification will be traffic, as we have seen in the F3 or F1 qualifying last weekend, drivers will have to be attentive to the slow cars in the last two corners of the circuit.

Only notable action in these early minutes: Charles Leclerc had a nice fright while braking for turn 9. The sudden loss of grip at the rear sent the Monegasque into a slide into the gravel trap.

A snap of oversteer sends Charles Leclerc wide at the penultimate corner 😮 He’s P8 for the time being#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/l7kn2NNEFk

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 2, 2021

After 20 minutes of rolling, Max Verstappen was at the top of the timing sheet with a time of 1:05.239 (yellow tire). He was ahead of Valtteri Bottas (+0.363) and the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Räikkönen (+0.385) probably with little fuel on board.

At the mid-session.

The only action on the track, the rain making its appearance, it will have been awaited or hoped for during last weekend’s race, it seems that this Sunday it will come to spice up the start.

Once the single-seaters were equipped with soft tires, the lap times dropped 30 minutes before the end of the session. Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes (1:04.523) and Valtteri Bottas (+ 0.189) were ahead of Max Verstappen (+ 0.217) and Lance Stroll (+0.616).

TOP 10 (35/60 MINS)

Hamilton
Bottas
Verstappen (📸)
Stroll
Vettel
Tsunoda
Gasly
Norris
Perez
Ocon#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/2GCxj12qLu

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 2, 2021

The last 20 minutes

The drivers were unable to improve their times or carry out good race simulations, due to a light rain making the track slippery. A slippery track but not enough to switch to intermediate tires.

Some drivers like Lewis Hamilton or Lando Norris were caught off guard by this fine drizzle, the seven-time world champion was forced to run wide in turn 4.

Hamilton is top of the timing screens, but takes a trip through the gravel coming out of Turn 4#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/YNL5TSMMe4

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 2, 2021

Free Practice 2 Standings