Practice report
Formula 1 Styrian GP
Styrian GP: Hamilton leads Verstappen in final practice
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton topped final practice for Formula 1’s 2021 Styrian Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull driver Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Jun 26, 2021, 5:19 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The world champion ended the session with a 0.204s advantage over his title rival, but Verstappen’s final laps were disrupted by traffic and he had a fractionally faster personal best deleted for running too wide at the final corner on his last go.
Most of the pack remained in the pits when the one-hour session got underway, with only the Haas cars taking to the track in the early stages – each running the hard tyres.
Mick Schumacher established the first place benchmark at 1m11.308s after five minutes had passed, which he whittled down to 1m11.238s as he and teammate Nikita Mazepin lapped the otherwise empty track before they were replaced by the Alpine duo at the 10-minute mark.
Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso immediately appeared on the mediums, with the former taking the top spot on his first flying lap – a 1m07.353s – before Alonso swept through to post a 1m07.031s.
On the other side of Kimi Raikkonen briefly taking first place with a 1m06.778s on the softs that was deleted for the Alfa Romeo driver running too wide out of the penultimate corner, Ocon set a 1m06.839s that stood as the new benchmark until Alonso beat it a few minutes later with a 1m06.686s.
George Russell put his Williams into first place with a 1m06.454s – the last then best time set on the medium tyres.
Approaching the 25-minute mark, Mercedes sent Bottas out for the first time – immediately running the softs, which he used to go fastest on a 1m06.212s.
Bottas took a cooldown tour and then went again on his first set of softs, improving the first place time to a 1m06.063s.
Hamilton and Verstappen had been the last drivers to take to the track and after their initial runs on the softs it was the Red Bull driver that held the edge, as he put in a 1m05.571s just before the halfway point.
Verstappen then set a 1m04.971s as his opening run continued, with Hamilton generally lapping about 0.3s slower – the Briton being told the gap at this stage was down to the Red Bull gaining on the straights.
After a final lull in action with 20 minutes to go as all cars returned to the pits, Bottas then beat Verstappen’s time on a 1m04.832s, before Hamilton set the session’s best time at a 1m04.369s a few moments later.
Verstappen did not reappear until there was just over five minutes of FP1 left to run and although he went for one final qualifying simulation run he was compromised by traffic early in what would be his penultimate flying lap and then came upon Hamilton touring slowly and offline at Turn 7 – the fast left at the end of the second sector.
Verstappen did set the session’s quickest time in the final sector on that lap, but wound up just over 0.2s adrift – and in a frustrated message to his Red Bull team seemed to suggest Hamilton had held him up.
After a tour through the pits Verstappen went for one last effort, but was again down in sector one compared to Hamilton and then caught traffic approaching the final corner and slid wide on the exit, which took him beyond track limits and his time – which was 0.201s behind Hamilton – was duly deleted.
Sergio Perez took fourth behind Bottas, with the Mexican driver followed by AlphaTauri pair Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly in fifth and sixth.
Charles Leclerc led Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in seventh, eighth and ninth, with Sebastian Vettel – who ran heavily over the big yellow kerb in the runoff exiting Turn 1 in the final stages – rounding out the top 10.
Lando Norris ended up P19 in the final standings after losing a late lap that would have put him between the AlphaTauri drivers for running too wide at the final corner.
Mazepin brought up the rear of the field, the Russian driver also spinning as he lost the rear of his car midway through Turn 1 just before the halfway point.
Styrian Grand Prix - FP3 results:
Cla # Driver Chassis Time Gap 1 44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 1'04.369 2 33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 1'04.573 0.204 3 77 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 1'04.832 0.463 4 11 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 1'05.026 0.657 5 22 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 1'05.150 0.781 6 10 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 1'05.298 0.929 7 16 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 1'05.340 0.971 8 14 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 1'05.400 1.031 9 18 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 1'05.445 1.076 10 5 Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 1'05.492 1.123 11 99 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 1'05.556 1.187 12 31 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 1'05.676 1.307 13 55 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 1'05.698 1.329 14 63 George Russell
Williams 1'05.863 1.494 15 7 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 1'05.942 1.573 16 47 Mick Schumacher
Haas 1'05.992 1.623 17 3 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 1'06.116 1.747 18 6 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 1'06.119 1.750 19 4 Lando Norris
McLaren 1'06.654 2.285 20 9 Nikita Mazepin
Haas 1'06.692 2.323 View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Steiner doesn’t fear retaliation in Schumacher/Mazepin battle
Next article COTA making plans for additional 20,000 fans at United States GP
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Alex Kalinauckas
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
Latest news
Kimi Antonelli labels the "turning point" in F1 title-winning season
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
19 min
Kimi Antonelli labels the "turning point" in F1 title-winning season
Alex Marquez undergoes surgery on his right shoulder and begins recovery at home
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
22 min
Alex Marquez undergoes surgery on his right shoulder and begins recovery at home
Charles Leclerc blames Mexico GP clash on track layout - Fred Vasseur disagrees
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
2 h
Charles Leclerc blames Mexico GP clash on track layout - Fred Vasseur disagrees
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe