© Getty ImagesFree Practice Update - Austrian Grand Prix 2021We're back for round nine at the Red Bull Ring, Austira.
This weekend will see once again 71 laps of the 10 cornered, 4.318km circuit for a total race distance of 306.452km. The only difference for the Austrian Grand Prix is the tyre compounds. These are one step softer this weekend, which sees Pirelli bring the C5 – the softest in their range – to the Red Bull Ring for the first time. Also on offer for the teams are the Medium C4 and Hard C3.
Last weekend saw a dominant display by Max, who claimed pole position and cruised to victory by more than 30 seconds. Checo missed out on a home race double podium by just 0.5 seconds, after a strong stint on medium tyres following his second pit stop.
Austria Pre-Race Programme© Red Bull Racing Honda
The final round of the first triple-header of 2021 got underway on Friday morning with Free Practice One. Max carried on where he left off from on Sunday, finishing P1 with a best time of 1:05.143. He completed 36 laps. Checo ended the session in P8, setting a time of 1:05.726. The Mexican completed 31 laps in total.
Friday's afternoon session, Free Practice Two, saw Max bring his RB16B home in P3. The Dutchman set a time of 1:04.740 and completed 35 laps. Checo ended the day in P11 with his fastest time a 1:05.516. He managed 39 laps of the Red Bull Ring.
The third and final practice session in Austria, Free Practice Three, saw Max end the session in P1 with a 1:04.591. In front of the Orange Army he completed 15 laps. Checo brought his RB16B back in P7 with a best time of 1:05.396. He completed a total of 20 laps.
Austrian Grand Prix 2021: Free Practice
Sparks In The Styrian Mountains© Getty Images
Getting In Those Practice Pit Stops© Getty Images
It's Good To See The Orange Army Back© Getty Images
Getting Comfortable On Friday© Getty Images
Good Spirits In The Garage© Getty Images
By The Bull At The Ring© Getty Images
Studying The Practice Data© Getty Images
Fastest Man In Free Practice One© Getty Images
Surrounded By Our Home Colours© Getty Images
Seeing Dou-Bull At Home© Getty Images
Rubbering The Track© Getty Images
“From our side we didn’t have a perfect run in FP2 but nevertheless I felt good in the car and there are no real problems. Mercedes looked quite quick on the soft so we just have to make sure we have a little more pace on that compound because we looked stronger on the medium and in the long runs, which at the end of the day is the most important for the race.
I think it will be tight again this weekend as it looks like Mercedes improved a bit but we will see tomorrow in qualifying.
"We also tested the new Pirelli prototype tyre which seemed to be fine. It did get quite greasy out there but luckily it was good enough to keep on driving so we had a good read on the long run pace. I think it will be tight again this weekend as it looks like Mercedes improved a bit but we will see tomorrow in qualifying and the most important thing is to make sure we look after the softer compounds in the race.”
“The long runs were definitely more promising today but there’s still a lot of work to do. Both sessions were quite tough and I’m not feeling fully comfortable with the car on the softer compound yet. We need to analyse the data tonight to try and get the pace back to where we would expect it to be, ready for qualifying tomorrow. We seemed to be quite far away from the balance with the low fuel but we corrected that quite quickly, we were also seeing less degradation on these tyres too which is good.
"It’s good to see Pirelli bringing a new tyre to test this weekend before we use them at Silverstone. Overall, I learnt a lot from today and it’s great to see all of the fans here at the Red Bull Ring and hopefully we can have a good qualifying tomorrow and a solid race on Sunday.”
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Max Verstappen | Charles Leclerc | Carlos Sainz | Valtteri Bottas | Yuki Tsunoda | Kimi Räikkönen | Lewis Hamilton | Sergio Pérez | Pierre Gasly | Lando Norris |
| Red Bull Racing Honda | Ferrari | Ferrari | Mercedes | AlphaTauri | Alfa Romeo Racing | Mercedes | Red Bull Racing Honda | AlphaTauri | McLaren |
| 1.05.143 | 1.05.409 | 1.05.431 | 1.05.445 | 1.05.475 | 1.05.586 | 1.05.709 | 1.05.726 | 1.05.726 | 1.05.880 |
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Valtteri Bottas | Max Verstappen | Lance Stroll | Sebastian Vettel | Yuki Tsunoda | Pierre Gasly | Fernando Alonso | Lando Norris | Antonio Giovinazzi | Sergio Pérez |
| Mercedes | Mercedes | Red Bull Racing Honda | Aston Martin | Aston Martin | AlphaTauri | AlphaTauri | Alpine | McLaren | Alfa Romeo Racing | Red Bull Racing Honda |
| 1.04.523 | 1.04.712 | 1.04.740 | 1.05.139 | 1.05.268 | 1.05.356 | 1.05.379 | 1.05.393 | 1.05.466 | 1.05.511 | 1.05.516 |
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Max Verstappen | Valtteri Bottas | Lewis Hamilton | Pierre Gasly | Antonio Giovinazzi | Carlos Sainz | Sergio Pérez | Fernando Alonso | Charles Leclerc | Sebastian Vettel |
| Red Bull Racing Honda | Mercedes | Mercedes | AlphaTauri | Alfa Romeo Racing | Ferrari | Red Bull Racing Honda | Alpine | Ferrari | Aston Martin |
| 1.04.591 | 1.05.129 | 1.05.277 | 1.05.280 | 1.05.345 | 1.05.347 | 1.05.396 | 1.05.434 | 1.05.484 | 1.05.542 |
