F1 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen quickest from upgraded Ferrari pair in sole practice
The reigning world champion left it late to top the timesheet𒊎s as he posted a 1m05.742s in his dominan♊t Red Bull RB19.
Verstappen clocked his best lap on medium𒁏 tyres but was still 0.241s ahead of Carlos Sainz, and 0.270s clear of Charles Leclerc, both of whom were running the faster soft tyres on thei🥂r upgraded Ferraris.
Lewis Hamilton spent much of the session at the top of the 𓂃order having set the early benchmark on hard tyres, 𓃲but the Mercedes driver ended up half a second behind Verstappen during the qualifying simulation runs.
Sergio Perez, who skipped Thursday’s media day after becoming unwell, was well enough to drive as he finished fifth, 0.520s of♛f his Red Bull teammate on the same compound.
Sixth place went the way of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who pipped Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and t𝓰eammate Fernando Alonso.&ღnbsp;
George Ru꧂ssell struggled to match the pace of his Mercedes teammate as he took ninth, ahead of Zhou Guanyu, who rounded out the top-10 for Alfa Romeo.
Lando Norris failed to get a soft tyre run in at the end of the session as he finished slowest of al♐l in 20th, despite running McLaren’s heavily-upgraded MCL60.
Qualifying for Sunday's grand prix is up next and tak🗹es place at 4pm UK time.
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