Lewis Hamilton led the final practice session at the Red Bull Ring ahead of Max Verstappen.
Verstappen led the early running, prompting Hamilton to ask his race engineer, Peter Bonnington where he was losing three-tenths of a second to the Red Bull. “Looks like it’s be straight-line speed, most of it,” said Bonnington, continuing a consistent theme from the Mercedes came of late.However Hamilton then set a much faster lap during his second qualifying simulation run, topping the session by two-tenths of a session.
His team mate Valtteri Bottas did the most running, along with Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, both putting in 25 laps. Raikkonen’s running was briefly disrupted when he had to pit to have a tear-off removed from his rear wing. Verstappen allowed himself just 16 runs around the Styrian track.
AlphaTauri looked quick again, Yuki Tsunoda leading Pierre Gasly to be ‘best of the rest’ after Mercedes and Red Bull. After missing second practice, Gasly resumed his participation in the weekend, now on his third MGU-K of the season.
Six drivers had lap times deleted for exceeding track limits at turn nine and six also got penalised for going over the line at turn 10. They included Lando Norris, a persistent offender yesterday, whose 1’05.228 would have put him sixth overall.
McLaren were therefore left surprisingly far down the times sheets. Ricciardo seemed to be running a different programme to Norris, doing two runs on medium tyres rather than purely running fast laps.
For the first time this weekend, Antonio Giovinazzi was not the quickest Ferrari-powered driver, Charles Leclerc placing just behind the AlphaTauri drivers in the timing.
Drivers almost exclusively used soft tyres this morning, in preparation for qualifying and there seemed to be two key stints, one early in the session and one late, when they set qualifying simulations. The only cars to try a short hard tyre stint were both Haas drivers, early in the session.
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2021 Styrian Grand Prix third practice result
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’04.369 | 18 | |
| 2 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’04.573 | 0.204 | 16 |
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’04.832 | 0.463 | 24 |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda | 1’05.026 | 0.657 | 21 |
| 5 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’05.150 | 0.781 | 23 |
| 6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’05.298 | 0.929 | 22 |
| 7 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’05.340 | 0.971 | 21 |
| 8 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’05.400 | 1.031 | 24 |
| 9 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’05.445 | 1.076 | 17 |
| 10 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’05.492 | 1.123 | 19 |
| 11 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’05.556 | 1.187 | 23 |
| 12 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’05.676 | 1.307 | 21 |
| 13 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’05.698 | 1.329 | 22 |
| 14 | 63 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’05.863 | 1.494 | 23 |
| 15 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’05.942 | 1.573 | 25 |
| 16 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’05.992 | 1.623 | 24 |
| 17 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’06.116 | 1.747 | 20 |
| 18 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’06.119 | 1.750 | 21 |
| 19 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’06.654 | 2.285 | 19 |
| 20 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari | 1’06.692 | 2.323 | 22 |
Third practice visual gaps
Lewis Hamilton – 1’04.369
+0.204 Max Verstappen – 1’04.573
+0.463 Valtteri Bottas – 1’04.832
+0.657 Sergio Perez – 1’05.026
+0.781 Yuki Tsunoda – 1’05.150
+0.929 Pierre Gasly – 1’05.298
+0.971 Charles Leclerc – 1’05.340
+1.031 Fernando Alonso – 1’05.400
+1.076 Lance Stroll – 1’05.445
+1.123 Sebastian Vettel – 1’05.492
+1.187 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’05.556
+1.307 Esteban Ocon – 1’05.676
+1.329 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’05.698
+1.494 George Russell – 1’05.863
+1.573 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’05.942
+1.623 Mick Schumacher – 1’05.992
+1.747 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’06.116
+1.750 Nicholas Latifi – 1’06.119
+2.285 Lando Norris – 1’06.654
+2.323 Nikita Mazepin – 1’06.692
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’06.332 | 1’05.796 | 1’04.369 | -1.427 | 83 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’05.910 | 1’05.412 | 1’04.573 | -0.839 | 86 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’06.386 | 1’06.251 | 1’04.832 | -1.419 | 88 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda | 1’06.696 | 1’06.089 | 1’05.026 | -1.063 | 89 |
| 5 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’06.397 | 1’06.451 | 1’05.150 | -1.247 | 97 |
| 6 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’06.166 | 1’05.298 | -0.868 | 54 | |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’06.629 | 1’06.270 | 1’05.340 | -0.93 | 95 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’06.519 | 1’05.827 | 1’05.400 | -0.427 | 97 |
| 9 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’06.584 | 1’06.079 | 1’05.445 | -0.634 | 85 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’06.708 | 1’05.934 | 1’05.492 | -0.442 | 87 |
| 11 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’06.614 | 1’06.145 | 1’05.556 | -0.589 | 87 |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’06.551 | 1’05.790 | 1’05.676 | -0.114 | 89 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’06.630 | 1’06.147 | 1’05.698 | -0.449 | 92 |
| 14 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’06.669 | 1’05.748 | 1’06.116 | +0.368 | 91 |
| 15 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’06.848 | 1’06.628 | 1’05.863 | -0.765 | 93 |
| 16 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’06.297 | 1’05.942 | -0.355 | 65 | |
| 17 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’07.473 | 1’06.886 | 1’05.992 | -0.894 | 82 |
| 18 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’06.861 | 1’05.994 | 1’06.654 | +0.66 | 92 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’07.180 | 1’07.669 | 1’06.119 | -1.061 | 83 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari | 1’08.081 | 1’07.404 | 1’06.692 | -0.712 | 82 |
| 21 | Robert Kubica | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’07.823 | 29 |
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2021 Styrian Grand Prix
- Sainz praises Ferrari “teamwork” with Mercedes after unlapping himself from Hamilton
- W Series boss says it will not become a “billionaire girls’ club”
- Mercedes has more than just aerodynamic upgrades coming for 2021 car
- Alonso: F1 rule to ‘improve the show’ helps the big teams
- Is stamping out ‘burn-out’ celebrations a killjoy over-reaction?
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
26th June 2021, 12:26
To part quote Hamilton… “Where did that 2 tenths of a second come from?”
I think that sets us up for an interesting quali. Lets hope for no red flags or controversial yellow flags.
melanos
26th June 2021, 12:59
second, I guess
Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
26th June 2021, 13:03
In all fairness, he also topped the sessions with two-tenths of a session, seeing as that is 12 minutes…
ian dearing
26th June 2021, 13:04
I would imagine so given how much Latifi held up Max on his run.