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Hamilton ends FP1 top of the timesheets

Published on 07 Jul 2017 11:10
2
By: Fergal Walsh

Lewis Hamilton has started his weekend off in Austria in fine form, setting a lap time of 1:05.975. The Brit's lap was set on the soft compound, the hardest of the three brought by Pirelli this weekend in Spielberg.

Valtteri Bottas was third with a time of 1:06.345 on the super soft compound. The Finn had a couple of off-track excursions, spinning at turn 1 as he tried to tune himself into the challenging circuit.

Red Bull appear to have some solid pace at its home track as Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo ended the session second and fifth respectively. Verstappen's lap was three-tenths of a second slower than the Silver Arrow of Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari was fourth and sixth and will be hoping to change its fortunes this weekend, with the last victory coming for the Prancing Horses in Monaco. Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was just over two-tenths of a second faster than teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

McLaren-Honda also started its weekend very strongly as the struggling partnership got itself seventh and ninth with Stoffel Vandoorne ahead of his experienced teammate. Honda has brought a 'spec 3' engine to the Red Bull Ring which will supposedly improve speed and reliability. Splitting the two McLaren's was Daniil Kvyat, who was eighth while rounding out the top 10 was the Force India of Esteban Ocon.

Felipe Massa was eleventh, arriving in Austria in bitter disappointment after missing out on a potential win in Baku. Following the Brazilian was Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz.

An under pressure Jolyon Palmer was fourteenth, ahead of Lance Stroll who will be full of confidence after picking up his first podium in Azerbaijan two weeks ago. The second Haas of Romain Grosjean followed the young Canadian.

Sergey Sirotkin and Alfonso Celis were P17 and P18 for Renault and Force India. Both men will hand the seat back to the forest drivers at the teams for the second practice session this afternoon, while the Sauber's of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson completed the list of times.

? "I slightly clipped the wall..." the Dutchman informs his team after he slid off ⬇️ at Turn 7 #AustrianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/7e4HTlT1bk
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 7, 2017

Fergal Walsh

F1Grand Prix Austria - Free practice 1

Red Bull Ring - 07 July 2017

Driver

Team

Time

Difference

#
1

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

1:05.975

38
2

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing

1:06.165

+0.190

23
3

Valtteri Bottas

Mercedes

1:06.345

+0.370

35
4

Sebastian Vettel

Ferrari

1:06.424

+0.449

28
5

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull Racing

1:06.620

+0.645

32
6

Kimi Räikkönen

Ferrari

1:06.848

+0.873

24
7

Stoffel Vandoorne

McLaren

1:07.283

+1.308

31
8

Daniil Kvyat

Toro Rosso

1:07.437

+1.462

31
9

Fernando Alonso

McLaren

1:07.510

+1.535

28
10

Esteban Ocon

Force India

1:07.511

+1.536

39
11

Felipe Massa

Williams

1:07.550

+1.575

29
12

Kevin Magnussen

Haas F1

1:07.594

+1.619

30
13

Carlos Sainz jr

Toro Rosso

1:07.633

+1.658

32
14

Jolyon Palmer

Renault

1:07.649

+1.674

31
15

Lance Stroll

Williams

1:08.041

+2.066

35
16

Romain Grosjean

Haas F1

1:08.074

+2.099

20
17

Sergey Sirotkin

Renault

1:08.586

+2.611

27
18

Alfonso Celis jr

Force India

1:09.280

+3.305

15
19

Pascal Wehrlein

Sauber

1:09.323

+3.348

29
20

Marcus Ericsson

Sauber

1:10.853

+4.878

12

Photos Austria 2017

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F1 News Max Verstappen Valtteri Bottas Daniel Ricciardo Daniil Kvyat Lewis Hamilton Sebastian Vettel Kimi Räikkönen Stoffel Vandoorne Esteban Ocon Pirelli Force India Ferrari McLaren Honda

Replies (2)

f1fan0101

Posts: 1,804
And they're looking very strong, yet again....
- + 0
- Jul 7 2017 - 11:55
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Doubt this round was representative, I expect Ferrari to get much stronger. But McLaren can be anywhere at this rate.
- + 0
- Jul 7 2017 - 17:37