Max Verstappen led the timesheets again in FP2 and ended an incredibly positive Friday in Austria. However, his rival team Mercedes F1 could not prevail. Lewis Hamilton secured P4 behind Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas ended up on a rather unsatisfactory P12.
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Pierre Gasly, after shining in FP1, was unable to leave the garage after AlphaTauri discovered a problem with the drive unit on the Frenchman’s car.
Valtteri Bottas had to go through another tough session as he was only able to drive out P12. And that was just the tip of the iceberg for Finn. Bottas had a bizarre moment in the pit lane; he suffered a spin near the McLaren garage only for a team of papaya crews to get him back on track.
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How the second F1 practice started
A fairly overcast sky greeted the F1 drivers for the second practice session. With the risk of rain increasing every minute, the teams decided to push the cars off the track as soon as the lights turned green.
Most of them hit the track on hard tires, some chose to stick with medium tire runs.
Formula 1 F1 – Styria Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring, Styria, Austria – June 25, 2021 Ferraris Carlos Sainz Jr. and Ferraris Charles Leclerc in action during training REUTERS / Leonhard Foeger
However, just five minutes into the session, Carlos Sainz reported raindrops falling on his visor. However, since it wasn’t difficult enough, the drivers continued their lap times.
Fernando Alonso held P1 for a while before Verstappen took the lead again. A short time later, Hamilton managed to beat his rival by 0.285 seconds to lead the field. Sainz soon stole the spotlight as he spun at Turn 4 after a gravel kiss.
Qualifying sim run
15 minutes after the start of the session, Valtteri Bottas was already on a kind of qualifying sim when he pushed his Mercedes on soft tires. In the end, however, his lap was not enough to beat Verstappen, as Bottas pushed himself to P2 despite the massive tire advantage.
He was followed by the Aston Martin duo, who briefly held P1 and P2 before Hamilton took the lead by driving 0.138 seconds faster. Esteban Ocon then overshadows the Briton’s lap time with the fastest lap of 1: 05: 790.
Formula 1 F1 – Styria Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring, Styria, Austria – June 25, 2021 McLarens Lando Norris in action during practice REUTERS / Leonhard Foeger
His alpine team-mate Alonso continued to show a rapid pace as he held P3 and hit Hamilton. FP1 leader Verstappen chased for another top spot and made it when he secured P1, while Daniel Ricciardo slipped into P2 right behind.
Top 10 F1 classification of FP2
Verstappen set the timesheets on fire by posting a 1: 05: 412 and thus reaching for P1. Ricciardo secured a fairly distant P2, over 0.3 seconds behind the Dutchman, followed by Ocon and Hamilton.
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Alonso completed the top 5, Vettel and Stroll took Norris. Perez was on a different setup compared to his teammate when he stayed at P9, with Giovinazzi finishing in the top 10.
Formula 1 F1 – Styria Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring, Styria, Austria – June 25, 2021 Alpine Fernando Alonso in action during training REUTERS / Leonhard Foeger
Overall, the rain played hide-and-seek throughout the session, forcing the teams to hurry with the qualification and race simulation runs. Despite the gloomy sky, the rains didn’t make the session interesting and ended a fairly easy FP2.
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But do the rain gods play spoilsports on Saturday and Sunday and give the spectators an unbelievably eventful racing weekend?
The post Styrian GP FP2 report: Verstappen at the top, Bottas’ F1 misery is getting worse first appeared on monter-une-startup.
