Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton maintained his and Mercedes’ imperious early form as he completed a clean sweep of practice sessions for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton led the way through both of Friday’s sessions and during Saturday afternoon’s one-hour session he emerged fastest once more.
His time of 1:04.130 left him 0.147s clear of team-mate Valtteri Bottas to ensure Mercedes finished first and second in all three practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen shows Red Bull pace, Perez impresses again
Red Bull had a quiet Friday at its home event but Max Verstappen’s performance was attributed to sustaining front wing damage on his hot lap.
As teams ran qualifying simulations in the final practice session Verstappen emerged as the fastest non-Mercedes driver, 0.283s behind Hamilton, putting him within striking range at least.
Alexander Albon, who is understood not to be running the newest-specification front wing due to a shortage of parts, finished in sixth place overall.
Elsewhere Sergio Perez maintained his and Racing Point’s impressive pace in the ‘pink Mercedes’ as he classified fourth, 0.475s down on Hamilton, with Lance Stroll eighth.
Ferrari off the pace again
Ferrari briefly ran 1-2 as it carried out its Soft tyre runs a few minutes before its rivals.
But when the order shook out its low-key performance from Friday was carried over.
Charles Leclerc, who claimed an emphatic pole position at the Red Bull Ring 12 months ago, finished fifth but was over half a second behind pacesetter Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel was left down in seventh, finishing just clear of Stroll, and less than a tenth ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Lando Norris, who rounded out the top 10.
Elsewhere George Russell provided a glimpse of Williams’ improvements as he finished 16th, ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, and clear of both Alfa Romeo drivers, though rookie team-mate Nicholas Latifi hit trouble.
Latifi starts off with a prang
It has been seven months since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at which Williams confirmed the worst-kept secret and announced Latifi as its 2020 race driver.
Latifi came tantalisingly close to his debut in Australia, before the weekend was cancelled, and then had another wait until Formula 1 finally reconvened in Austria.
But after a subdued Friday his Saturday started off in difficult fashion as he lost control of the FW43 through the exit of Turn 1 on a Soft tyre push lap halfway through the session.
Latifi suffered a front-end collision with the exit barriers and spun several times before coming to a halt, fortunately avoiding any further damage to the car.
The session was halted for 10 minutes while the wrecked car was recovered while Latifi was given the all-clear after a mandatory medical check-up.
Saturday’s three-part qualifying session will begin at 15:00 local time (GMT +2)
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:04.130 | 21 | |
| 2 | V. Bottas | Mercedes | 1:04.277 | +0.147 | 20 |
| 3 | M. Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:04.413 | +0.283 | 20 |
| 4 | S. Perez | Racing Point | 1:04.605 | +0.475 | 19 |
| 5 | C. Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:04.703 | +0.573 | 19 |
| 6 | A. Albon | Red Bull | 1:04.725 | +0.595 | 22 |
| 7 | S. Vettel | Ferrari | 1:04.851 | +0.721 | 20 |
| 8 | L. Stroll | Racing Point | 1:04.918 | +0.788 | 18 |
| 9 | P. Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:04.949 | +0.819 | 19 |
| 10 | L. Norris | McLaren | 1:04.950 | +0.820 | 22 |
| 11 | E. Ocon | Renault | 1:05.037 | +0.907 | 11 |
| 12 | D. Ricciardo | Renault | 1:05.088 | +0.958 | 13 |
| 13 | C. Sainz | McLaren | 1:05.177 | +1.047 | 24 |
| 14 | D. Kvyat | AlphaTauri | 1:05.290 | +1.160 | 24 |
| 15 | R. Grosjean | Haas | 1:05.363 | +1.233 | 18 |
| 16 | G. Russell | Williams | 1:05.565 | +1.435 | 21 |
| 17 | K. Magnussen | Haas | 1:05.648 | +1.518 | 18 |
| 18 | A. Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:05.654 | +1.524 | 16 |
| 19 | K. Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1:05.773 | +1.643 | 19 |
| 20 | N. Latifi | Williams | 1:07.049 | +2.919 | 6 |
