Max Verstappen recovered from a suspected engine glitch to record comfortably the fastest time during the sole practice session for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.
F1 Sprint is returning for the third time this year, and for the third successive time at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen brought out the red flags midway through the session when he came to a halt along the pits straight, complaining of an engine fault.
Verstappen’s stricken RB20 was wheeled back into the pit lane but his absence was only fleeting as he swiftly returned to the track to continue his programme.
Verstappen moved to the front on a time of 1:05.685s to finish the session a sizeable 0.276s clear of McLaren driver’s Oscar Piastri.
Piastri’s McLaren team-mate Lando Norris had clocked the fastest first sector but scuppered his prospects with an error into Turn 4, leaving him down in 13th position.
Mercedes had sat atop the timesheets before the late flurry of times on Soft tyres, but George Russell had a scrappy Turn 1 and then encountered traffic, while Lewis Hamilton remained on the Hard tyres.
Hamilton finished the session in fifth spot with Russell down in eighth.
Ferrari finished in third and fourth respectively, with Charles Leclerc in front of Carlos Sainz, while Esteban Ocon and newly re-signed Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll split the Mercedes pair.
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10.
Sergio Perez finished down in 12th spot on Medium tyres after having a messy attempt on Softs.
Drivers also got their first taste of the revised solution to track limits, with thin strips of gravel installed on the exits of Turns 9 and 10, after the fiasco of last year’s raft of penalties. A slim blue line has also been added to the kerbs to assist the FIA’s Race Control in identifying those who have exceeded the limit.
