F1 Styrian GP: Hamilton 0.2s clear of Verstappen in final practice
The seven-time world champion put his Mercedes to 🥂the top of the timesheets for the first time this weekend in Austria with a 1m04.369s during the qualifying simulation runs on the soft tyre.
Hamilton ended FP3 0.204s clear of Verstappen, who had topped both of Friday’s practice sessions aꦦt the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen was hampered by traffic during both of his last flying efforts of FP3 and also saw a slightly faster time deleted for a track limits ღbreach at Turn 10.
It sets up the prospect of a close battle for pole position in qualifying between Mercedes and Red Bull, with Verstappen currently holding a 12-point advan🌊tage over Hamilton in the championship.
Valtteri Bottas, who will take a three-place grid penalty foཧr Sunday’s race after a spin in the pitlane during FP3, was third-quickest, 0.463s down on his Mercedes teammate.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finished fourth and was over six-tenths down on Hamilton’s benchmark, while AlphaTauri enjoyed a strong session with𒁏 Yuki Tsunoda fifth-fastest ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly.
Charl𒅌es Leclerc got within a second of the pace in his Ferrari to take seventh, ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, and the Aston Martin pair of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel who completed the top-10.
Conditions remained dry throughout a relatively uneventful session that saw a sp🐽in for Haas’ Nikita Mazepin and a near-miss in the pitlane between Bottas and Gasly.
Qualifying at Spielberg gets uඣnderway at 3pm local tim🔯e (2pm BST).
Click here for full final practice results for the 2021 F1 Styrian Grand Prix.
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