Friday’s fastest times go to Red Bull, McLaren, and Alpine in that order. Mercedes tracked fourth (Hamilton) and 12th (Bottas).
SPIELBERG, Austria—It might be a coincidence that Max Verstappen is driving on his sponsor’s home circuit, but it might also be that the Dutchman is just on his game. Either way or both, Max Verstappen set the pace in advance of Sunday’s Steiermark Grand Prix by taking both Friday practice sessions. His best time of 1:05:412 was ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
Lewis Hamilton led some of the session but ended up fourth overall. Veterans Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel proved that their Alpine and Aston Martin entries were still a threat by finishing fifth and sixth overall, respectively.
There were storms in the area, but neither session was affected by the weather because the heavy clouds stayed in the mountains and did not come into the valley. Only a light sprinkle greeted the drivers early in the second-afternoon session, but rain dissipated a few minutes later.
Still, that rain led to Nikita Mazepin (Haas) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (Ferrari) spinning. Neither driver nor car was worse for the way, though, and both recovered quickly to continue their practice sessions. But the sprinkle did affect Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes). Bottas was coming out of the pit lane when he struck a wet painted part of the area. He then slid sideways, nearly coming in contact with the McLaren pit crew. The pit crew assisted Bottas in getting out of the area, but the incident also brought a protest to Michael Massi, the director of race control. At the time of this publication, no penalties have been made public.
Bottas ended the day as 12th overall. Pierre Gasly fared worse. The Frenchman failed to put his Alpha Tauri on the track for the afternoon session because he experienced a sensor issue on his Honda power unit.
Rain is again in the forecast with possible thunderstorms. With prospects for inclement weather, success in Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race may come down to which teams and drivers can best (as they say) ‘weather the storm.’
