Vettel tops FP3 as Verstappen hits trouble - FP3 results and summary

Sebastian Vettel topped final practice for the Austrian Grand Prix from Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas ahead of qualifying on Saturday.

Pierre Gasly’s session didn’t start as he might have hoped. After his suspension failure yesterday, the Frenchman was told to return to the pitlane moments after he left the garage and to not use full throttle.

Toro Rosso weren’t the only ones with issues, Stoffel Vandoorne had yet another front wing issue, the McLaren mechanics were giving a once over and assessing the damage done.

The threat of rain was constant, but the precipitation held off, but the drivers were still exploring run-off areas in the dry. Vettel going off on his first lap, Verstappen making use of the escape road at turn five after running through the gravel and Kimi Raikkonen dipping into the gravel through turn eight.

Ferrari and Mercedes traded times for most of the session, with all four of the main protagonists going fastest at some point during the session. Red Bull, however, looked a step behind their rivals as yesterday suggested.

Brendon Hartley was the next driver to pay the price for running wide, he broke the end plate off of his brand-new Toro Rosso front wing after hitting the yellow curbs on the exit of turn nine.

Hamilton made several changes with just 20 minutes of the session remaining to help his Mercedes on corner turn in. His lap was just 0.029s off of Vettel’s best

Red Bull had been off the pace all weekend and matters didn’t improve as disaster hit Max Verstappen just minutes from the end of the session. The Dutchman pulled off the track and reported over team radio he had suffered a complete loss of power.

Qualifying should be very close and the battle for pole could come down to thousands of a second. Who will get it right and who will miss out? It will be a very interesting hour in Spielberg.