Max second in final free practice Styrian Grand Prix

Published on 26 June 2021 by Kees-Jan Koster

Max Verstappen finished second in the third free practice for the Styrian Grand Prix on the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The Red Bull Racing driver came two tenths short of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. On the other hand, the Dutchman was two tenths of a second ahead of Valtteri Bottas. The second Red Bull, with Sergio Perez, was in fourth position.

It is sunny and over twenty degrees when the third and final free practice session starts. In the first ten minutes only the two Haas cars, on hard tyres, set a time, followed by the two Alpine F1’s on mediums. Kimi Raikkonen is on the softs faster, but his time is deleted because of exceeding track limits in the last two corners. Many drivers face the same issue.

With 38 minutes to go, Lewis Hamilton comes out on the Austrian track. Only Max has not been out, but he also enters the track a couple of minutes later. Valtteri Bottas is leading (1:06.063) on the softs, followed by both Ferraris in two tenths of a second (Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc) on mediums, until Pierre Gasly puts his AlphaTauri in front of them.

Max sets a 1:05:571 in his first flying lap on soft tyres and goes to P1. Yuki Tsunoda is surprisingly in second position on his mediums, just in front of Hamilton and Mercedes on soft tyres. Halfway the session Nikita Mazepin spins upholding his reputation.

Max goes again and sets a 1:04.971 and increases his lead to Gasly with seven tenths, until Hamilton takes second position after which it gets quiet on track. With fifteen minutes to go, both Hamilton (1:04.369) and Bottas (1:04.832) set quicker times than Max. With 8 minutes on the clock Max starts his last run. At that time most of the other drivers are also on track, each of them on the softer rubber in preparation for qualifying.

Max gets up to two tenths (1:04.573) of P1 from Hamilton, who was a bit in the way of the Dutchman during his quick lap. Max can take off another three thousandths of a second of his time, but this time is deleted. That means Hamilton finishes in P1, followed by Verstappen, Bottas and Perez, with two tenths of a second between each of them.

Qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix starts at 15.00.

Contest Styrian GP: win a 1:43 Styrian GP 2020 scale model!

Results third free practice Styria: