It remained same at the top in the second practice of 2018 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton led the way from Valtteri Bottas.
It was fairly a routine run in FP2 with the rain staying away even though the weather was still cloudy – it didn’t hinder anyone’s programme. Hamilton (1m04.579s) finished on top from Bottas (1m04.755s) with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (1m04.815s) in third.
Interestingly, they weren’t gaining as much they would have liked on the ultrasoft tyres especially losing time in the first sector for almost the whole of the grid. Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m05.031s) was fourth from teammate Max Verstappen (1m05.125).
The Dutchman had few off-track moments while riding the kerbs high, but managed to continue on well. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m05.265s) once looked off in the session to be sixth ahead of the Haas duo – who continued to showed solid promise.
It was Romain Grosjean (1m05.429s) ahead with Kevin Magnussen (1m05.559s) following – despite both having off-track excursions in the session. The Dane had a moment in the pits when his front right wasn’t fitted properly but the team were quick to caution him.
Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m05.758s) and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne (1m05.930s) completed the Top 10. The Frenchman caused a red flag in the session when he went wide in the final corner and broke the left front suspension after hitting the yellow kerb.
But the team were able to get the car back on time to fix it and send him out for more practice time. Renault’s Carlos Sainz (1m05.999s) was able to improve on his time to beat Sauber’s Charles Leclerc (1m06.096s).
The leading Force India of Esteban Ocon (1m06.133s) was 13th from Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson (1m06.199s) with the Swiss outfit showing solid promise in both the sessions. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m06.273s) had another difficult run to be 15th.
Both the Saubers also had off moments like Sainz. Meanwhile, in his first run in the weekend, Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin (1m06.326s) was a good 16th from Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley (1m06.332s) with Force India’s Sergio Perez (1m06.354s) in only 18th.
At the back it was McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (1m06.429s) in 19th from Williams’ Lance Stroll (1m06.626s) after the Spaniard had a floor change due to damage. But Alonso continued to have some off moments in the rest of the session.
