Accidents, near-accidents, and heat characterized an interesting practice session.
SPIELBERG, Austria—June 28th—With a headwind coming from the north side of the circuit, Friday practice for the Austrian Grand Prix turned into a crazy affair with two, and nearly three, drivers spinning and crashing off the course. But Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the pilot with the best time of the day–clocking in at a 1:05:086–just ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Late-charging Pierre Gasly, who sat most of the session back in the midfield, took third.
Besides the strong north wind, there was heat, which has been in the central part of Europe for the last few days. The circuit registered around 120 degrees by the afternoon session.
The opening morning session–won by Lewis Hamilton–had no difficulties. But the afternoon had two sessions red flagged.
Max Verstappen was the first victim of a spin at turn 10, losing the back end of his Red Bull, slamming into the barriers, and damaging the rear wing. Since the accident did not disrupt the session too long, the track marshalls only took a few minutes to remove the car so that the Red Bull crew could take the damaged car back to the pits undercover for repairs. But because Verstappen’s pit crew came onto the circuit, the green flag resume took place just after the 45-minute mark left in the session.
Just as the track was clear, the next shunt occurred. Bottas lost control of his car at turn six and speared through the gravel, striking the barriers with the front of his car. Although the impact looked bad, the Finn (like Verstappen), escaped without injuries. The red flag came out again, but the situation was quickly cleared up, and the session resumed shortly afterward.
Sebastian Vettel nearly made it the third victim of drivers spinning off the track. But, this time, the Ferrari driver, who also spun at turn six, managed to keep himself from striking the barriers, with the only problem being all four of his tires flat spotted.
Hamilton was cautious most of the afternoon but managed to finish fourth, while Carlos Sainz continued to improve in his McLaren, taking fifth. Romain Grosjean improved on his grid position, finishing sixth, while Kimi Raikkonen had a late-charging good lap to end up in seventh.
Despite their accidents, Vettel and Verstappen took eighth and ninth places, respectively, while Lando Norris made it a double top-ten finish for McLaren in tenth.
The weather will only get warmer for the next two days, and it’s expected that Sunday’s race day will be very hot for the drivers. Temperatures could make it for an interesting race.
