Red Bull’s Verstappen fastest man in Austria GP sole practice

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the fastest man out on track as the field underwent its first, and only, practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

How the only free practice session of the weekend unfolded…

As the drivers filtered out to the pit lane to wait at the pit exit, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton sat at the head of the queue followed closely behind by Verstappen. 

When the pit exit light went green, the rest of the field peeled out onto the circuit apart from the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant. 

Naturally, Verstappen went to the top of the timing board with a 1:08.0. 

After the first 10 minutes, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez topped the timing board ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton who were second and third respectively. However, at the same time, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was on a flyer and quickly reset the benchmark with a 1:06.656 lap. 

The discrepancy for Alonso’s new fast lap was on the tyre compounds, Perez had set his fastest time on the hard tyres early on while the Aston Martin’s Spaniard was on the medium compounds. 

Verstappen soon improved his lap time to jump back up to the top spot, on his hard tyres, as he went 0.05s faster.

At the 10-minute mark, the Williams duo still remained firmly within their garages – problem or part of their plan?

Shortly after the 15-minute mark, the Williams duo were finally seen out on track. Sergeant set the first lap time on the board, three seconds off the pace, but Albon soon went fifth fastest – both drivers were on the soft compound tyre. 

At the halfway mark, Hamilton topped the timing boards with the freshest hot lap with a 1:06.4, 0.1s faster than Verstappen and two-tenths quicker than Alonso who was second and third respectively. 

In the dying minutes of practice, as more rubber bedded into the circuit, the field ventured out for practice qualifying laps. 

After the new fast laps, Verstappen returned to his natural position in 2023 at the top of the timing sheets with a 1:05.742, on his used medium tyres, which was 0.2s faster than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Leclerc who finished second and third respectively on the soft tyres.

Hamilton and Perez occupied fourth and fifth with the former on the quicker, soft tyres. 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll led the bottom half of the top 10, five-tenths of a second off the pace, in sixth ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, Alonso, Mercedes’ George Russell and Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou finished seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th. 

How the bottom half shaped up: 

11. Alexander Albon, Williams
12. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
13. Nico Hulkenberg, Haas
14. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo
15. Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri
16. Nyck De Vries, Alpha Tauri
17. Logan Sargeant, Williams
18. Esteban Ocon, Alpine
19. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
20. Lando Norris, McLaren

That’s all for the article: Red Bull’s Verstappen fastest man in Austria GP sole practice!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Alpha Tauri expected to change F1 team name ahead of 2024
• Red Bull head home for 2023 F1 Austrian Grand Prix
• Verstappen victorious in Canada GP to give Red Bull 100th win
• Tsunoda and Stroll given three-place grid drop for Impeding in Canada GP Qualifying
• Hulkenberg loses Canada front row start with three-place grid penalty
• Sainz slapped with three-place grid drop for Canada GP

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.