Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Red Bull Ring, 2019

Hamilton leads Vettel by a tenth on softer tyres

2019 Austrian Grand Prix first practice

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Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes led the first practice session at the Red Bull Ring but Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari was just a tenth of a second slower on harder tyres.

Hamilton headed the times with a best effort of 1’04.838, just one-thousandth of a second inside his best time from the same session last year. However on a hot, 46C track, the medium tyres seemed to be holding up better than the softs Hamilton ran. Vettel, on mediums, was 0.144 seconds slower than him in second place. Hamilton also picked up light damage to his front-left wing endplate.

Their team mates came next. Mercedes discovered an oil leak on Valtteri Bottas’s W10 an hour before the session began. They swapped his spec two unit out for his old spec one example, but he wasn’t able to join in proceedings until half an hour after the session started. Like Hamilton he set his best time on the soft tyres, and had a medium-shod Ferrari a tenth of a second behind him.

The Red bull pair were fifth and sixth-quickest at their home track, but around the short 64-second lap the gaps were much closer than usual. Max Verstappen was within half a second of Hamilton, and their closest rivals were little over a tenth of a second behind.

They were led by Carlos Sainz Jnr, who has a new power unit in his McLaren and will take a grid penalty. Team mate Lando Norris joined him in the top 10, the pair separated by Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen.

Nico Hulkenberg in the other Renault managed the 14th-best time but also brought the session to an early end. He wrecked the left-hand side of his front wing on a kerb at turn nine, scattering debris across the track, and bringing out the red flags with three minutes to go.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’04.83834
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1’04.9820.14423
377Valtteri BottasMercedes1’04.9990.16137
416Charles LeclercFerrari1’05.1410.30326
533Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’05.2600.42230
610Pierre GaslyRed Bull-Honda1’05.3780.54030
755Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’05.5020.66434
83Daniel RicciardoRenault1’05.8461.00827
920Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’05.8761.03827
104Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’06.1251.28727
118Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’06.1351.29720
1226Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’06.2721.43429
1323Alexander AlbonToro Rosso-Honda1’06.2851.44732
1427Nico HulkenbergRenault1’06.3831.54530
1511Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’06.4571.61936
1699Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’06.7081.87030
177Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’06.7291.89123
1818Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’06.7561.91829
1963George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’06.8051.96728
2088Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’07.6652.82728

First practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’04.838

+0.144 Sebastian Vettel – 1’04.982

+0.161 Valtteri Bottas – 1’04.999

+0.303 Charles Leclerc – 1’05.141

+0.422 Max Verstappen – 1’05.260

+0.540 Pierre Gasly – 1’05.378

+0.664 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’05.502

+1.008 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’05.846

+1.038 Kevin Magnussen – 1’05.876

+1.287 Lando Norris – 1’06.125

+1.297 Romain Grosjean – 1’06.135

+1.434 Daniil Kvyat – 1’06.272

+1.447 Alexander Albon – 1’06.285

+1.545 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’06.383

+1.619 Sergio Perez – 1’06.457

+1.870 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’06.708

+1.891 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’06.729

+1.918 Lance Stroll – 1’06.756

+1.967 George Russell – 1’06.805

+2.827 Robert Kubica – 1’07.665

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2019 Austrian Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Hamilton leads Vettel by a tenth on softer tyres”

  1. @keithcollantine I don’t think these are the final session times

    1. Yes – if nothing else – the lap counts look a little light.

  2. Hope this engine precaution will be just a precaution, and Mercedes will install it back before tomorrow.

    Nad hope nothing happens to their engines.

    1. That engine has seen better days! It has been puffing smoke, misfiring on last weekend, duly responsible to powered Bottas till the end of the race. RIP spec 2 engine.

  3. Even a monkey could win in that Mercedes, no news here. Thing is not about VET (he beat LEC, btw!), but where’s BOT…!?

    1. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but this reads like a dog whistle

      It’s also at this stage a gross overstatement. Vettel is ahead of Bottas who clearly isn’t a monkey, so it’s reasonable to assume a monkey would be even further behind

    2. @mg1982
      ”Gentleman, a short view back to the past; 30 years ago, Niki Lauda told us, take trained monkey, place him into the cockpit and he’s able to drive the car, 30 years later Sebastian told us; I had to start my car like a computer it’s very complicated, and Nico Rosberg said; He pressed during the race, I don’t remember what race, the wrong button on the wheel. Question for you two both; is Formula 1 driving today too complicated with 20 and more buttons, on the wheel, are you too much under effort under pressure? What are your wishes for the future concerning the technical program, during the race? Less buttons more, or less and more communication with your engineers?”

      – Walter Koster 2014.

      1. @jerejj You can train a monkey to press buttons ;)

      2. @jerejj Can you repeat the question?

        1. Beat me to it.

      3. @jerejj – could you please repeat the question? ;)

      4. @mobiusclean @phylyp @todfod @m-bagattini
        He’s the best journalist ever to appear in F1. I wish he attended more races than just the Abu Dhabi, Belgian, and German GPs, so that we would get to enjoy his hilarious yet genius questions more often. Oh well, the German GP is only two races away now, so not too long to wait for the next opportunity.

  4. Wrong times. Pretty funny mistake. Ham was fastest followed by Vettel then Bottas.

  5. Apologies for the error on the times before, that’s been fixed now.

  6. Suffering Williams Fan
    28th June 2019, 13:35

    I know it’s only FP1, but might Russell out-qualify a non-Williams car on merit this weekend?

    1. Frank Marketing
      28th June 2019, 14:43

      Suffer no longer! Make failure your friend! Welcome disappointment to your door!

      Join the Williams Fan Club now!

    2. As long as Stroll is around .. there’s always a chance

      1. @todfod – LOL!

        Gasly – giving hope to the midfield.
        Stroll – giving hope to Williams.

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