F1 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen quickest from Charles Leclerc in sole practice before qualifying
The reigning world champion, who has won four of the last ♏six races at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, finished 0.255s clear of Ferrari’s Leclerc in the hour-long first practice, which was interrupted by two red flags caused by a sඣtoppage for Lando Norris and debris on track.
George Russell ended up just 0.4s off Verstappen’s timeshee෴t-topping time in the W13 which was upgraded last time out at Silverstone, with Sergio Perez splitti🔯ng the Mercedes drivers with a late improvement to go fourth.
Lewis Hamilton was two-tenths of a second b൲ehind teammate Russell 📖and 0.607s behind Verstappen in fifth.
Kevin Magnussen took sixth pl😼ace in his Haas, ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who set his best lap time on the medium compound tyre.
Mick Schumacher a💜nd Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10 for Ha♌as and AlphaTauri respectively.
Dismal session for McLaren
It was a n🍬ightmare start to the weekend for McLaren, with Norris stopping on track after reporting an engine issue on his car. The Briton had earlier said he was stuck in 'limp home mode' at the beginning of the sessioꦅn.
As a result of his stoppage, which caused the first red fl💝ag around 40 minutes in, Norris ended up slowest of all in 20th.
FP1 went little ▨better for McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who was only 17th-fastest after encountering ꦿa DRS issue on his car.
It leaves McLaren with a lot of work to dಌo ahead of qualifying on Friday afternoon, with Austria hostin♌g the second sprint race of the season.
The teams have more hour-long practice session on Saturday morning before the 24-lap sprint to set the order for Sunda♍y's G🐻rand Prix.
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