Austrian GP: Leclerc fastest again in FP3

Leclerc was the only driver to lap below 1m04s at the Red Bull Ring as FP3 set up an enticing Ferrari vs Mercedes battle for pole position.

Bahrain poleman Leclerc had control of the 60-minute session throughout and enjoyed a comfortable advantage after the first runs.

His 1m04.275s left him almost four tenths clear of the lead Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who had a tiny advantage over Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Hamilton.

Bottas moved to the top of the times on his first flying lap on a second set of new soft tyres, eclipsing Leclerc’s time by half a tenth.

However, Leclerc improved twice on his second run and ended on a 1m03.987s – with his second lap, a 1m04.120s, also good enough for top spot.

Hamilton lapped 0.010s slower than Leclerc initially but ended the session 0.143s behind after failing to improve again.

He was a tenth clear of Bottas, with the second Ferrari of Vettel 0.263s slower than his teammate in fourth.

Verstappen slipped to fifth in the lead Red Bull although did not hook up his best sectors.

He was 0.459s slower than Leclerc after failing to improve in the final part of the lap on his first new-tyre run, and then aborting a quicker lap shortly after – complaining that “the changes we made are not good”.

Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly had a troubled start to the session when he reported “really low power” and spent the opening phase of FP3 in the pits.

However, he emerged with enough time to completely two runs as normal, but ended up only seventh and 1.2s off the pace.

That gap allowed Lando Norris to split the Red Bulls in his McLaren, which was just within a second of Leclerc’s best – 0.999s off the pace.

His teammate Carlos Sainz Jr finished the session eighth-fastest, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo and the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat.

Half a second covered Sainz in eighth to Lance Stroll's Racing Point in 16th.

Haas endured a difficult session, with its cars 15th (Romain Grosjean) and 18th (Kevin Magnussen). The team also needs to change the gearbox on Magnussen's car before qualifying, which will hand the Dane a five-place grid penalty.

Session results

Cla	#	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	16	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	18	1'03.987
2	44	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	21	1'04.130	0.143
3	77	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	Mercedes	23	1'04.221	0.234
4	5	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	Ferrari	20	1'04.250	0.263
5	33	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Honda	18	1'04.446	0.459
6	4	Lando Norris		McLaren	Renault	19	1'04.986	0.999
7	10	Pierre Gasly		Red Bull	Honda	15	1'05.152	1.165
8	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	Renault	22	1'05.219	1.232
9	99	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	17	1'05.336	1.349
10	26	Daniil Kvyat		Toro Rosso	Honda	25	1'05.391	1.404
11	23	Alex Albon		Toro Rosso	Honda	29	1'05.481	1.494
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg		Renault	Renault	21	1'05.514	1.527
13	7	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	21	1'05.514	1.527
14	11	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	Mercedes	18	1'05.523	1.536
15	8	Romain Grosjean		Haas	Ferrari	20	1'05.620	1.633
16	18	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	Mercedes	17	1'05.650	1.663
17	3	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	Renault	19	1'05.878	1.891
18	20	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	11	1'06.017	2.030
19	63	George Russell		Williams	Mercedes	23	1'06.676	2.689
20	88	Robert Kubica		Williams	Mercedes	23	1'07.484	3.497
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