Max Verstappen claims the top spot in FP1 at the Austrian Grand Prix
14:37, 30 Jun 2023
15 Comments
Max Verstappen has claimed the top spot in the first and only practice session of the weekend for the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver finished ahead of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc at the Red Bull Ring, as he found the 1:05’s with his final lap of the session,.
As this was the team's only practice session of The Weeknd, the majority of the drivers flew out of the pits and onto the circuit as the light turned green, however, that wasn’t the case for Williams.
The British team didn’t leave the pits within the first 20 minutes of FP1 but when they did come out onto the track, Alex Albon was able to maximise the soft tyres, placing as high as fifth during the hour.
With constant running occurring, teams were running different methods in order to collect key data to aid their set-ups for the weekend ahead.
Hamilton stronger than teammate in FP1
Lewis Hamilton had a strong session, holding the top spot for a large majority of the hour before teams switched to soft tyres to end the session and the real pace of Red Bull and Verstappen was on show.
As for his teammate George Russell, the Brit struggled to get out of the top 10 for a large period of time but ended up finishing in ninth, just under a second behind the Dutchman, and one place behind Fernando Alonso.
It will be interesting to see how the Mercedes car and driver compare to their rivals in qualifying later today.
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last bit of the session was hard to read imo.
Max was doing multiple cooldown laps on the mediums, Lewis was fastest on hard tyres and had only 1 go on softs, ferrari was quite fast on the softs. can go any directions to my feeling.
I am knocking of in 40 minutes. Rushing home. Pour a Richelieu and coke. Then enjoy qualifying!!!!!
That's a very south African thing to do
Indeed my friend. Do not forget about the braai a little bit later.
The chops are always for later
Red Bull is such a rocketship...
Interesting claim, would it be possible that you share data confirming this claim?
Max, looks strong. RB, Mercedes, Martin and Ferrari look strong in that order. Will be exciting events. Rain will also play a factor.
Given it is the only practice before quali, very positive signs for RB.
Still intrigued with Sergio appearing to struggle in a that car. .500 slower than Max.
His struggle seems more of a mental block than anything else. I dont know if he is 100% healthy but after how he got beaten by Max in Miami, it seeems that he has lost his performance.
Yes, Checo has fallen off a cliff after Miami. Really hoping he gets his groove back soon, for RB's sake. Drivers like Max and Alonso can't really count on their teammates to build a gap to the rivals in the race. Not that they need it, anyways!
Maybe that just driver difference and any other driver would be there in that car
Max topped FP1 on mediums.
They way he carressed that car around the circuit was sublime.
He's ready.
Let's go Champ
Sublime is the right word! Supermax schooling the field again!
He did a wonderful job. Max is in a league of his own right now.