Austrian GP: Free Practice #1 - RE-CAP & TIMES

AUSTRIAN GP - FREE PRACTICE #1 - RE-CAP & TIMES

    Mercedes led the pack in the first practice session of the Austrian GP weekend. This race weekend is the second of three back-to-back GP weekends and is 2018's only triple-header.

    Lewis Hamilton took the top spot with a fastest time of 1:04.839. Team-mate, Bottas, was close behind with a 1:04.966. 

    It's Red Bull's home race and crowd favorite, Max Verstappen was third, setting a 1:05.072. Vettel and Ricciardo completed the top 5.

    Robert Kubica filled in for Sergey Sirotkin at Williams for this session. The Polish Ex-F1 driver finished in 20th with a 1:07.424. Lance Stroll finished a few spaces above in 16th with a 1:06.567.

    Stoffel Vandoorne ran into some issues with the kerbs, resulting in the nose of his McLaren sustaining quite a bit of damage. He ended up finishing the session in 18th, ahead of Hartley and Kubica. Alonso was only one place behind in 17th with a 1:06.612. McLaren also ended up with a fine after unsafely releasing Vandoorne in the pit-lane.

    Charles Leclerc, who has been the main talking point over the last few weekends, having been rumoured to have agreed to a 2 year deal with Ferrari, was once again in the top 10, in 9th with a 1:06.215. Leclerc is repeatedly giving Sauber some of their best results that they've had in years. Ericsson was not far behind either, finishing the session in 11th.

    Raikkonen, Grosjean, Ocon and Gasly all also finished within the top 10.

TIMES:

1. Lewis Hamilton - 1:04.839 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain
2. Valtteri Bottas - 1:04.966 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland
3. Max Verstappen - 1:05.072 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands
4. Sebastian Vettel - 1:05.180 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany
5. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:05.483 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Australia
6. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:05.776 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland
7. Romain Grosjean - 1:06.028 / Haas-Ferrari / France
8. Esteban Ocon - 1:06.055 / Force India-Mercedes / France
9. Charles Leclerc - 1:06.215 / Sauber-Ferrari / Monaco
10. Pierre Gasly - 1:06.394 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / France
11. Marcus Ericsson - 1:06.400 / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden
12. Kevin Magnussen - 1:06.404 / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark
13. Carlos Sainz - 1:06.427 / Renault-Renault / Spain
14. Sergio Perez - 1:06.455 / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico
15. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:06.479 / Renault-Renault / Germany
16. Lance Stroll - 1:06.567 / Williams-Mercedes / Canada
17. Fernando Alonso - 1:06.612 / McLaren-Renault / Spain
18. Stoffel Vandoorne - 1:06.698 / McLaren-Renault / Belgium
19. Brendon Hartley - 1:06.871 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / New Zealand
20. Robert Kubica - 1:07.424 / Williams-Mercedes / Poland*

* - Participating in FP1 only

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Article Written By: Amy Hawk
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