The fight for pole is set to get intensified with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton going head-to-head in FP3 of the 2018 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix as the German beat the British driver to head the timing sheets.
Ferrari rose to the occasion in the third practice at Red Bull Ring with Vettel finishing on top with a time of 1m04.070s as he managed to get ahead of Hamilton (1m04.099s) by a mere 0.029s with the Mercedes driver falling short only by much.
Hamilton had a slower first sector on his quick lap which limited performance slightly. In third was Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m04.204s) ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m04.470s), who had an off moment which disrupted his quick lap.
The Finn though still managed to improve on his second run but lost some time to only fourth but stayed ahead of the two Red Bull Racing drivers. It was Max Verstappen (1m04.791s) ahead of Daniel Ricciardo (1m04.891s) in the order.
The Dutchman again had an gravel moment in the session which ended early for him with an apparent electronics failure. Late improvements from majority of the field including the two Haas drivers saw them finish inside a second of Vettel’s time.
Romain Grosjean (1m04.916s) was ahead of Kevin Magnussen (1m05.013s) with Renault’s Carlos Sainz (1m05.086s) and Sauber’s Charles Leclerc (1m05.219s) popping into the Top 10 – the latter had to stop his car due to an engine issue right at the end of the session.
The likes of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m05.228s), Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m05.264s) and Force India’s Esteban Ocon (1m05.444s) all found themselves inside the Top 10 one moment but were pushed down by the Haas drivers, Sainz and Leclerc.
They had to settle for 11th, 12th and 13th in the end respectively as McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (1m05.448s) was 14th ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez (1m05.502s) – the latter not having a good weekend as he struggled with balance issues.
The seconds followed then with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson (1m05.699s) in 16th from Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley (1m05.705s) and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne (1m05.837s). The Kiwi had to resort to an older front wing after he broke his new one in Turn 9 off.
Vandoorne, meanwhile, couldn’t do much running as he also damaged his front wing after riding on the yellow sausage kerbs which caught out Gasly on Friday. Meanwhile, Williams’ Lance Stroll (1m06.029s) and Sergey Sirotkin (1m06.318s) completed the 20 runners.