Verstappen quickest despite stopping on track in Austrian GP practice

Max Verstappen was quickest in the sole practice session at the Red Bull Ring, but only after a scare when he was forced to stop on track.

The championship leader set the pace with a 1’05.685 on used medium tyres to go quickest ahead of Oscar Piastri and the two Ferrari drivers. Lando Norris spoiled his sole flying lap with a mistake.

Verstappen was forced to stop on track halfway through the session with an apparent problem, which brought out the red flags. However, he was brought back into the garage before rejoining the session soon after, where he was able to set the fastest time.

Comfortably warm, dry conditions awaited drivers for the one and only hour of open practice for the weekend at the Red Bull Ring. Naturally, with such limited time to test parts and car set-up, there was plenty of early running as teams ran on a variety of compound in the early session.

Mercedes opted for the hard tyres for both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for their first runs of the session and the pair used them to set the early pace with Hamilton quickest with a 1’06.254. That was just a tenth quicker than his team mate with Verstappen third, three tenths slower.

The field of 20 cars returned to the pits just before the half hour mark to adjust their car settings before returning back out on track. However, soon after heading back out, Verstappen suddenly slowed to a halt along the pit straight before being instructed to stop the car.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Verstappen’s stoppage brought out the red flag while he was pushed back into the pit lane and the garage. However, it did not take long before he was back out on track, indicating the problem was only minor.

The new gravel strips at the exit of turns nine and ten appeared to serve their purpose of discouraging drivers from running too wide as there were no major excursions out onto the hew hazard through the session. Traffic was a concern, however, with Yuki Tsunoda complaining that he almost collided with Alexander Albon who almost verged off the racing line into the path of the RB driver on the run to turn nine.

In the final minutes, Verstappen returned on track with the same set of medium tyres he had previously been running on and improved to go quickest of all with a 1’05.685. Piastri also improved to go second behind the Red Bull in his McLaren, but did so on a used set of hard tyres.

When the chequered flag flew, Verstappen was confirmed as fastest heading into sprint qualifying, with Piastri closest to him and the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr in third and fourth. Hamilton was the quickest Mercedes in fifth, but was the only driver in the field who did not run the soft tyres at all during the session.

Esteban Ocon was sixth for Alpine ahead of Lance Stroll, Russell and Tsunoda in ninth, with Fernando Alonso the final driver in the top ten. Lando Norris took to the track late with a fresh set of soft tyres but ran off at turn five on his push lap, ruining his chances of improving. He ended the session down in 13th place.

While Verstappen headed the session, his team mate Sergio Perez was over a second off in 12th place. Perez encountered some traffic on his soft tyre run but also suffered understeer early in the lap and had to correct a snap of oversteer which cost him at the final corner.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2024 Austrian Grand Prix first practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB20	1’05.685
2	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL38	1’05.961	0.276
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-24	1’06.055	0.370
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-24	1’06.128	0.443
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W15	1’06.254	0.569
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A524	1’06.297	0.612
7	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR24	1’06.384	0.699
8	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W15	1’06.386	0.701
9	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	01	1’06.579	0.894
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR24	1’06.603	0.918
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A524	1’06.734	1.049
12	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB20	1’06.783	1.098
13	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL38	1’06.880	1.195
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber-Ferrari	C44	1’06.919	1.234
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber-Ferrari	C44	1’06.925	1.240
16	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB-Honda RBPT	01	1’06.962	1.277
17	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-24	1’06.966	1.281
18	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW46	1’06.995	1.310
19	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-24	1’07.145	1.460
20	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW46	1’07.259	1.574

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2024 Austrian Grand Prix

• Austrian GP clash will have taught Norris how to race Verstappen – Ricciardo
• Verstappen was “lucky” tyre damage didn’t force him to retire like Norris
• Pirelli introducing new C6 tyre to improve racing on street tracks next year
• Norris admits ‘overreacting’ but queries why Verstappen avoided track limits penalty
• Norris and Verstappen’s Austrian GP collision “blown out of proportion” – rivals

Browse all 2024 Austrian Grand Prix articles