Austrian GP FP3: Everything you need to know

Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen restored Red Bull’s supremacy at its home track by topping the Saturday morning Austrian Grand Prix practice session.

Key moments:

> Verstappen more than half a second clear
> Hamilton’s fastest lap deleted
> Giovinazzi stars in fifth
> Dramas for Tsunoda and Mazepin

Verstappen sat out the first half hour, which was largely dedicated to prototype tyre running that Red Bull felt he’d done enough of on Friday already, but was immediately quickest with his very first flying lap on softs.

It put the Dutchman seven tenths clear of previous leader Charles Leclerc – and though Lewis Hamilton soon overhauled Leclerc, his first soft-tyre attempt was still half a second adrift of Verstappen’s.

Having acknowledged on the radio that his Turn 1 was “pretty bad”, Hamilton closed to three tenths off Verstappen with his follow-up attempt, before switching to a fresh set of softs and improving to 0.053s behind Verstappen.

But that state of affairs was short-lived. Not only did Hamilton’s lap get chalked off for track limits at the final corner, but Verstappen immediately went fourth tenths quicker on fresh softs of his own, ensuring he would end the session in first place.

Valtteri Bottas ended up as his closest rival, 0.538s off, with Hamilton following his Mercedes team-mate in third, having lost his fastest time.

A late lap on somewhat used softs elevated Pierre Gasly to fourth for AlphaTauri, with his former GP2 team-mate and title rival Antonio Giovinazzi a standout fifth for Alfa Romeo, 0.002s up on the lead Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez posted a chequered-flag improvement to move up the order but was only seventh, ahead of Fernando Alonso (Alpine), Leclerc (Ferrari) and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin).

AlphaTauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda spent much of the session up front but couldn’t put it together on softs late on, and had a big spin exiting the penultimate corner en route to an eventual 12th place.

What a save, Yuki! 🧤

He almost went into a high-speed spin at Turn 9, but managed to catch it on the grass and get back on track#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/pwoEdYa6KJ

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 3, 2021

George Russell was as high as fifth at one point but ended up 14th for Williams, albeit was still ahead of both McLarens – with Lando Norris’ fastest lap ruined when he went wide at the final corner.

Haas driver Nikita Mazepin rounded out the order, having gone through the gravel at Turn 4 during the session.

A revision in the race director notes ahead of Saturday’s action has instructed drivers not to ease off and try to create a gap to the car ahead after the penultimate corner, which should have an impact on how the usually heavy-traffic Red Bull Ring qualifying plays out later today.

Practice 3 Results