Formula 1 headed to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, for the ninth round of the 2017 Season for the Austrian Grand Prix. First practice was all about getting acquainted with the circuit, a circuit that is difficult to master despite only having ten corners.
Incident filled FP1 in Austria sees Lewis Hamilton set the early pace
The session saw a number of changes in the driver lineup of a number of teams, with Sergey Sirotkin having a test session for Renault, standing in for Nico Hulkenberg, and Alfonso Celis Jr standing in for Sergio Perez at Force India, carrying out his role as the team’s development driver.
Heading back to Europe once again, it is perhaps unsurprising that a number of teams brought new and updated packages and upgrades to test in FP1. Teams included Red Bull Racing and Mercedes bringing new aero packages, Williams bringing new and updated sidepods and barge board designs, and most notably McLaren, who bring a new and updated “Spec 3” engine to Austria, aiming to improve its performance by increasing power.
Due to the difficult nature of the Red Bull Ring, a number of drivers had multiple offs, including Lance Stroll spinning in turn 9, Daniil Kvyat spinning in turn 4, Valtteri Bottas spinning in turn 1, Carlos Sainz Jr spinning in turn 10, and the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel also having off track moments in quick succession early on. Romain Grosjean also fell victim to the kerbs of the Red Bull Ring and picked up a front left puncture by running wide in turn 10, disrupting his session. Max Verstappen became the first driver to hit the wall, running wide and driving through the gravel trap of turns 6 and 7 before tagging the outside wall with his right rear tyre. Despite hitting the wall, Verstappen was able to continue.
Despite the session being disrupted by a number of yellow flags, Lewis Hamilton set the early pace in Austria for Mercedes with a 1:05.975, 1.5 seconds faster than last year’s times and 0.190 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. In the closing stages of the session, the Dutchman’s final lap was set to be faster, however, a spin in turn 3 cut his final run short. It is to be noted that Hamilton’s fastest lap was set on the soft tyre – the slowest tyre compound available to drivers this weekend – while all other times apart from Marcus Ericsson’s were set on either the faster supersoft or ultrasoft tyre. Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top three in the session, 0.370 seconds slower than his team mate.
After implementing the “Spec 3” Honda engine this weekend, McLaren had a promising session in FP1, with Stoffel Vandoorne seventh fastest and Fernando Alonso ninth fastest, albeit over 1 second slower than Hamilton. These times however, were set on the ultrasoft tyre which is the softest and therefore the fastest tyre of this weekend, meaning that the engine update that Honda have provided will not push McLaren into the competitive regions of Formula 1.
Results from Practice 1 of the Austrian Grand Prix:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:05.975
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1:06.165
- Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 1:06.345
- Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:06.424
- Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing, 1:06.620
- Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:06.848
- Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:07.283
- Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:07.437
- Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:07.510
- Esteban Ocon, Force India, 1:07.511
- Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:07.550
- Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1, 1:07.594
- Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1:07.633
- Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:07.649
- Lance Stroll, Williams, 1:08.041
- Romain Grosjean, Haas F1, 1:08.074
- Sergey Sirotkin, Renault, 1:08.586
- Alfonso Celis Jr, Force India, 1:09.280
- Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber, 1:09.323
- Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:10.853
Main Photo
