Austrian GP: Free Practice #3 - RE-CAP & TIMES

AUSTRIAN GP - FREE PRACTICE #3 - RE-CAP & TIMES

    Sebastian Vettel topped the times in the final free practice session ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.

    Both Vettel and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen were able to bring the fight to Mercedes, who dominated the first two practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring.

    Vettel set his fastest time of the morning, an outright track record of 1m04.070s, in the final 15 minutes of the hour long session.

    Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who topped both Friday practice sessions, came within 0.03s of Vettel’s best time, but couldn’t quite match the Ferrari.

    Valtteri Bottas and Raikkonen were both top of the times early in the session, but dropped down to third and fourth before the chequered flag.

    Red Bull had been running fifth and sixth when Max Verstappen pulled to a stop in front of the Dutch fans 10 minutes before the chequered flag. Verstapen told the engineers the engine had shut off and he’d lost power steering, with a turbo inlet problem suspected to be the cause.

    Verstappen wasn’t the only driver to stop on track. With only a handful of seconds left on the clock, Charles Leclerc brought his Sauber to a stop. The rookie had only just left the pits when he became stuck in fifth gear. He quickly recognised the problem and came to a stop not far from the pits.

    Kerbs continued to be a problem for Toro Rosso and McLaren, with Brendon Hartley and Stoffel Vandoorne suffering front wing damage after running over the sausage kerbs. Both managed to return to the pits, though only managed 17th and 18th overall, just ahead of the Williams duo.

    Haas took best of the rest, with Romain Grosjean finishing seventh ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Carlos Sainz, and Leclerc.

    Nico Hulkenberg finished just outside the top 10 in P11, followed by Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, and Marcus Ericsson.

TIMES:

1. Sebastian Vettel - 1:04.070 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany
2. Lewis Hamilton - 1:04.099 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain
3. Valtteri Bottas - 1:04.204 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland
4. Kimi Raikkonen – 1:04.470 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland
5. Max Verstappen – 1:04.791 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands
6. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:04.891 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Australia
7. Romain Grosjean – 1:04.916 / Haas-Ferrari / France
8. Kevin Magnussen – 1:05.013 / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark
9. Carlos Sainz - 1:05.086 / Renault-Renault / Spain
10. Charles Leclerc - 1:05.219 / Sauber-Ferrari / Monaco
11. Nico Hulkenberg – 1:05.228 / Renault-Renault / Germany
12. Pierre Gasly - 1:05.264 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / France
13. Esteban Ocon - 1:05.444 / Force India-Mercedes / France
14. Fernando Alonso - 1:05.448 / McLaren-Renault / Spain
15. Sergio Perez - 1:05.502 / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico
16. Marcus Ericsson - 1:05.699 / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden
17. Brendon Hartley – 1:05.705 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / New Zealand
18. Stoffel Vandoorne - 1:05.837 / McLaren-Renault / Belgium
19. Lance Stroll - 1:06.029 / Williams-Mercedes / Canada
20. Sergey Sirotkin - 1:06.318 / Williams-Mercedes / Russia

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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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