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Formula 1
Austrian GP
F1 Austrian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP2 & Sprint
Updates for Saturday practice and the sprint race at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring
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The sprint race weekend format returns at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.
Max Verstappen will start the sprint race from pole, having seen his lead in the F1 world drivers’ championship trimmed to 34 points in a dramatic British GP last time out, as Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez finished as runner-up to maiden winner Carlos Sainz.
Charles Leclerc lost out in a Ferrari strategy call to drop to fourth place in the Silverstone race, putting him 43 points behind Verstappen in the standings.
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With just over 13 minutes to go, Hamilton makes his first trip out onto the track. Good effort there from his Mercedes mechanics.
The drivers have been well-behaved so far. We're tempting fate, but there haven't been any track limits deletions as yet.
Lance Stroll had been in 19th and last of those to set a time in the session, but now moves up to 10th for Aston Martin on a 1m09.525s. Just 1.6 seconds split the field from Sainz to Nicholas Latifi's Williams.
Now Sainz takes his turn at the top of the standings on 1m08.610s, just 0.050s ahead of team-mate Leclerc.
Verstappen and Alonso both found time on their last laps - the reigning world champion staying second, and his double F1 champion counterpart moving up to third, 0.054s behind.
Sainz is also on softs in the sister Ferrari, but his first recent effort at 1m09.115s is only good enough for sixth before he moves up to fourth on 1m08.998s.
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Improvements are being found all over the place at the moment. Leclerc now goes fastest of all with a 1m08.660s, using the soft tyres.
Ocon is another driver on the move, and he slots ahead of his team-mate into second on a 1m08.848s, just 0.049s down on Verstappen.
Perez now improves again, taking third on a 1m09.179s. But he is duly shuffled back to fourth as Alonso fires the Alpine up to second on a 1m09.081s.
Out at the front, Verstappen improves on the medium tyre to a 1m08.799s - he's still the only driver to lap under 1m09s so far in FP2.
Perez had been shuffled down to 15th after a quiet start to the session, but the Mexican now vaults up to fifth with a 1m09.421s on medium tyres.
Halfway through the session, and Hamilton has yet to emerge from the pits. Zhou meanwhile cracks the top 10, the Alfa Romeo driver slotting into eighth with a 1m09.866s.
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Ocon improves to sixth on his second lap, a 1m09.721s, to move ahead of Gasly and Albon.
Verstappen is now out on track again, this time with mediums. Both Alpines join him, with Alonso slotting into fourth after his first lap and Ocon in ninth -both using softs.
Leclerc now becomes the latest Ferrari driver to sample the Turn 3 run-off. That's where in the F3 race earlier on his brother Arthur made a three-wide move on Oliver Bearman and Zane Maloney.
Gasly has the fastest first sector time of anybody so far, tellingly in the area of the track that comprises the long climb towards the tight Turn 3 right-hander. The other two sectors, naturally, are headed by current pacesetter and fellow Honda engine customer Verstappen.
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Russell complains that his overtake button isn't working, but is informed by the team that it hadn't seen a sign of him using it. The Briton isn't impressed.
Russell has responded impressively to his qualifying accident and currently sits third, splitting the two Ferraris. Behind Gasly, now fifth, Albon moves up to sixth ahead of Norris, Ricciardo, Stroll and Tsunoda.
No sign yet of either Alpine driver or Hamilton with a little over 40 minutes remaining of the session.
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Verstappen has come into the pits after his run on the softs. "What's going on with the engine?" asks Leclerc, who is still circulating on mediums.
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Make that fourth...
Russell though responds and goes sixth again on a 1m10.149s, as Ricciardo pushes Albon down to eighth.
Russell's first timed lap of the session on soft tyres puts the Mercedes driver into sixth - although he's immediately shuffled back a place by Albon. The Williams driver, who replaced Russell at the team this year, logs a 1m10.272s.
Verstappen has ducked under the 1m09s bracket, with a 1m08.966s. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly goes fourth for AlphaTauri on a 1m09.829s lap with medium tyres.
George Russell has ventured out of the garage for the first time in his repaired Mercedes. He returns to the pits for a quick check, then heads back out again.
Sainz though now edges closer, with a 1m09.150s. The Spaniard, like Leclerc, is running on mediums - Verstappen's time was on softs, which suggests that he's running with plenty of fuel to simulate the start for the sprint later. In FP2 remember, cars are in parc ferme conditions so set-ups can't be changed. All teams can do is change tyres, add fuel and exchange parts for those of the same specification.
In fact, Verstappen has set two laps good enough for P1 so far, having logged a 1m09.170s just before his current benchmark.
Sainz goes back ahead of Leclerc on a 1m09.515s, but a slight lock up with his front-right into Turn 3 sends him into the run-off and means he's not able to respond as Verstappen goes faster still on 1m09.067s.
New winner Sainz is the first man under 1m10s, with a 1m09.833s in his Ferrari, but that is swiftly bettered by team-mate Leclerc on 1m09.620s.
All five runners to set a time so far, including Zhou and Schumacher, are all now under the 1m12s marker. For reference, the pole time set by Verstappen yesterday was 1m04.984s.
Bottas improves on his second lap to a 1m12.138s but is pushed back to third by Magnussen with a 1m11.479s. Norris too improves to a 1m10.670s.
Unsurprisingly, that's almost immediately bettered by Norris's soft-shod McLaren on a 1m11.410s.
Our early pace-setter then is Bottas, who pumps in a 1m12.309s on medium tyres.
Also out from the start of the session are the Ferraris, Norris and both Aston Martins - the latter trio all on soft rubber.
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No sign of either Mercedes leaving the pits just yet as work continues on readying the two cars following their accidents yesterday. Wolff explained earlier today that both cars will have new floors, the gearboxes need checking, Russell will likely require a new rear wing plus “lots of little bits and pieces”.
Lights green
We're green for FP2 in Austria, and immediately the Haas and Alfa Romeo cars head out of the pits.
By: autosport.com
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