Lewis Hamilton made it a clean sweep of Friday practice sessions at the Austrian Grand Prix, setting the fastest time again in the afternoon in Spielberg.
The Mercedes driver posted a new lap record around the Red Bull Ring as he lowered his morning benchmark by half a second on the ultra-soft tyres to a 1:05.483s.
His main championship rival, Sebastian Vettel, made it clear Hamilton won’t have it all his own way, as the four-time world champion climbed up to second place for Ferrari and within 0.147s of the Briton.
Valtteri Bottas had a moment of drama as he slid into the gravel at Turn 5 and spun as he looked to rejoin but that didn’t hurt the Finn too much as he took third.
The two Red Bulls again hinted they are more ready to pounce on those ahead after Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were separated by just half a tenth in fourth and fifth, in front of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari.
It wasn’t a completely smooth session for the Milton Keynes-based team, however, as a brake issue delayed Verstappen at the start and a mechanical problem stopped Ricciardo a little earlier than planned.
The midfield order continued to be both very close and rather against what was expected with Kevin Magnussen seventh and Romain Grosjean 10th for Haas.
Fernando Alonso needed a floor repair and emulated Bottas’ off at Turn 5, but the double world champion was able to maintain McLaren’s much-improved performance in eighth place, just three-thousandths of a second faster than Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault.
That meant neither Force India nor Williams, the two teams that are fourth and fifth in the Constructors’ championship had a car in the top 10 in the afternoon.
Esteban Ocon was the quickest of those four drivers in 11th but Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll both ran down in 14th and 16th, perhaps as Williams run with heavier fuel as they have done before. Sergio Perez missed the first session to allow reserve driver Alfonso Celis a run-out, the Mexican was only 17th in the second Force India, as a result, as he made up for the lost track time.
The two Toro Rossos also hit trouble as they ended 13th and 15th in the timings. Carlos Sainz’s car sprung a leak soon after the Spaniard bashed the floor against the high kerbs trying to recover from running wide on the exit of Turn 8 and Daniil Kvyat returned to the pits with an engine problem and his brakes on fire during his race simulation.
Also having problems was Jolyon Palmer in the second Renault, after his miserable reliability in Baku two weeks ago, engine issues struck again leaving the Briton stuck in the garage with just seven laps to his name.
Finally, bringing up the field was the two Saubers with Pascal Wehrlein 19th and Marcus Ericsson running through the gravel twice at Turns 3 and 5 as the Swede ended the day bottom.