Max Verstappen completed a Friday sweep at the Styrian Grand Prix, after Lewis Hamilton had his best time deleted in Practice 2.
The Mercedes driver managed the quickest time in the afternoon session at the Red Bull Ring, but just exceeded track limits at the final corner on that lap, leading to its deletion.
As a result, Verstappen’s time of 1m05.412s was enough to put him P1, three-tenths clear of the field.
Daniel Ricciardo would take second for McLaren, ahead of Esteban Ocon in third for Alpine, as the midfield pack closed up on the leaders.
Hamilton’s first flying lap on the soft tyres was enough to put him fourth, with Fernando Alonso fifth in the second Alpine.
Aston Martin enjoyed a stronger session with Sebastian Vettel sixth and Lance Stroll eighth after being the earliest to do their qualifying sim when a threat of rain lingered over the circuit.
Sergio Perez’s difficult day continued in ninth for Red Bull, two-thirds of a second slower than teammate Verstappen.
Antonio Giovinazzi made his second top 10 appearance of the day in P10 for Alfa Romeo.
Down the field, Valtteri Bottas was down in 12th, but his session was marked by a spin the pit-lane after Mercedes pitted him for new hard compound tyres during the race simulation.
Ferrari continued to sit on the cusp of the top 10 in P11 and P13, with Carlos Sainz having his second spin of the day this time at Turn 4.
After a strong morning, AlphaTauri had a difficult session with Yuki Tsunoda 15th and Pierre Gasly not taking part after Honda discovered a problem with his power unit during the lunch break.
Towards the back, George Russell led Mick Schumacher in 16th and 17th respectively, as their teammates, Nikita Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi, both had spins leaving them some way off the pace.
So despite the looming threat of rain, both sessions ended up being dry on Friday in Austria, with seemingly little to choose between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Whether that remains the case both in the sky and on the track for the rest of the weekend though is very much still unknown.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
