Max Verstappen recovered from early setbacks to clock the quickest time for Red Bull during second practice for Formula 1’s Styrian Grand Prix, as Daniel Ricciardo crashed heavily.
Verstappen spent time in the garage early in the session amid power issues at high speed, and was then frustrated by traffic when he emerged for a run on Medium tyres.
His first push lap on Soft tyres was then deleted for a track limits breach through the final corner but he recovered to set a time of 1:03.660s.
That effort left him 0.043s clear of World Championship leader Valtteri Bottas, who claimed victory from pole position at the venue last weekend.
Racing Point impresses again
Racing Point’s speed captured the attention at the Austrian Grand Prix and while its overall result was slightly subdued, the pace of the ‘pink Mercedes’ was once more in evidence.
Perez rocketed to the top of the standings with an early benchmark time that remained unbeaten until the efforts from Verstappen and Bottas.
Even when he was demoted the Mexican finished the session in third place, just two-tenths down on Verstappen, with Racing Point team-mate underlining the RP20’s potential by taking fourth.
Hamilton subdued
World Champion Lewis Hamilton topped all three sessions at the Austrian Grand Prix but after a quiet FP1 he managed only sixth in FP2.
Hamilton’s best lap left him 0.688s down on Verstappen and he was also substantially adrift of team-mate Bottas, as well as falling behind the Racing Points and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr.
Mercedes confirmed that Hamilton “isn’t happy with the car” and will investigate the matter further after the session.
Ricciardo exits early
The session was in its infancy when Ricciardo brought out the red flags after crashing at the penultimate corner.
On only his second lap Ricciardo lost control of the R.S.20 as through the middle of the medium-speed right-hander and slid across the gravel before suffering a rear-first impact with the barriers.
The R.S.20 sustained sizeable damage to the rear and left-hand-side and the session was stopped while the car was recovered.
Ricciardo, who limped away from the scene, was transported back to the pit lane in the Medical Car for a check-up and was declared fit by the Medical Delegate.
Ferrari off the pace once more
Ferrari brought accelerated its development programme for its SF1000 in the wake of last weekend’s struggles but the team did not trouble the front-runners on Friday.
Charles Leclerc, historically strong at the Red Bull Ring, mustered only ninth, a whole second slower than Verstappen and Bottas respectively.
Vettel finished down in 16th position, either side of Williams drivers George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, and even the lap time that was deleted for track limits would have put him only 12th.
Elsewhere Alexander Albon was another driver to struggle during the session, finishing seventh – 0.777s behind Verstappen – via two spins, including a high-speed trip through the Turn 7 gravel.
AlphaTauri remained firmly mid-grid, with Pierre Gasly in front of Daniil Kvyat in 11th and 12th respectively, in front of Alfa Romeo pair Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi.
Haas’ subdued weekend continued as Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were the slowest of the 19 drivers who recorded a time.
Could this be the grid?
There is a possibility that the outcome of this session could determine the grid order for Sunday’s grand prix.
Torrential rain and thunderstorms are set to deluge the region throughout Saturday and Race Director Michael Masi has warned that track action may be limited or non-existent.
In the event of no running taking place the back-up plan is for FP2 times to set the grid order, though a rescheduled session for Sunday morning is more likely.
This most recently occurred at last year’s Japanese Grand Prix when all Saturday track activity was cancelled in advance in anticipation of Typhoon Hagibis striking the region.
Should it not be possible to arrange a session on Sunday morning then as per the Sporting Regulations the FP2 times can be used to set the grid.
Saturday’s third practice session is scheduled for 12:00 local time
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:03.660 | 27 | |
| 2 | V. Bottas | Mercedes | 1:03.703 | +0.043 | 36 |
| 3 | S. Perez | Racing Point | 1:03.877 | +0.217 | 43 |
| 4 | L. Stroll | Racing Point | 1:04.241 | +0.581 | 43 |
| 5 | C. Sainz | McLaren | 1:04.333 | +0.673 | 45 |
| 6 | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:04.348 | +0.688 | 27 |
| 7 | A. Albon | Red Bull | 1:04.437 | +0.777 | 29 |
| 8 | L. Norris | McLaren | 1:04.541 | +0.881 | 31 |
| 9 | C. Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:04.706 | +1.046 | 35 |
| 10 | E. Ocon | Renault | 1:04.746 | +1.086 | 32 |
| 11 | P. Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:04.757 | +1.097 | 37 |
| 12 | D. Kvyat | AlphaTauri | 1:05.050 | +1.390 | 34 |
| 13 | K. Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1:05.152 | +1.492 | 23 |
| 14 | A. Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:05.365 | +1.705 | 36 |
| 15 | G. Russell | Williams | 1:05.588 | +1.928 | 34 |
| 16 | S. Vettel | Ferrari | 1:05.613 | +1.953 | 40 |
| 17 | N. Latifi | Williams | 1:05.655 | +1.995 | 49 |
| 18 | K. Magnussen | Haas | 1:05.790 | +2.130 | 36 |
| 19 | R. Grosjean | Haas | 1:06.096 | +2.436 | 38 |
| 20 | D. Ricciardo | Renault | No Time | 2 |
