Austria, FP2: Mercedes pair outpace Verstappen in second practice

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in the second practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix, with the defending champion finishing 0.189s ahead of team-mate Valttero Bottas and more than two tenths of a second ahead of championship-leading Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen.

As with the morning session a number fo teams spent the early part of running in the hour-long session testing the new rear tyre Pirelli intends to introduce at the British Grand Prix.

When the session settled, Bottas emerged as the pacesetter, using medium tyres to set a lap of 1:05.602. He was soon usurped by Verstappen, whjo also used medium tyres to post a new P1 time of 1:05.239.

Mercedes then made the switch to soft tyres for performance runs and Bottas leapfrogged Verstappen to reclaim first place with a lap of 1:04.712 set as the session approached the halfway mark.

It was then Hamilton’s turn and after posting purple times in the second and third sectors he stole top spot from his team-mate with a session-best time of 1:04.523.

Verstappen followed but he lost time in the final sector when he hit the kerbs hard in Turn 9 and he finished the performance runs 0.216s behind his title rival.

As misty drizzle began to fall the field then switched to longer run data gathering, a useful period in light of the forecast of rain on Sunday.

Behind Verstappen, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll claimed best of the rest honours, just four tenths adrift of the Red Bull. The Canadian’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel took fifth place, a teth of a second further back.

Behind the Astons, Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly finished sixth and seventh for AlphaTauri with eighth place in the session going to Alpine’s Fernando Alonso. McLaren’s Lando Norris and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi rounded out the top 10.