FP3: Verstappen hits back in final practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Austria, Red Bull Ring

Championship leader Max Verstappen hit back in the third and final practice for the Austrian Grand Prix, topping the session with a time of 1m04.523s. The Mercedes duo of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton ended up second and third fastest.

Following the rain-affected Free Practice 2, the field was welcomed by sunshine and much hotter conditions in the final session. After topping the afternoon's practice yesterday, both Mercedes drivers found it more difficult to find the right balance of their W12. In contrast, Max Verstappen missed the first half of the session as he did not feel the need for extra laps in the early stages of the session.

The Dutchman was flying as soon as he rolled out of the Red Bull garage, taking over the lead from the then leader Charles Leclerc. Completing only 15 laps in total, Verstappen used a second set of C5 compound for his second run, trying to get the best grip from the red-banded rubber that he was struggling with yesterday.

On this fresh set of softs, the championship leader went on to post a 1m04.591 which proved to be too much of a task for Mercedes to overcome. Bottas ended up second, 0.538s adrift of Verstappen while his newly re-signed team mate Hamilton set the third fastest time. In reality, the Briton set the second quickest lap time, going four tenths of a second slower than Verstappen, but he lost his best time to track limits at Turn 10.

Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi was the start of Free Practice 3, setting impressive pace all through the session before going fifth fastest with an eye-catching time of 1m05.345. Ferrari endured a much smoother session following their troublesome FP2 session with Carlos Sainz finishing P6 and Charles Lerclerc P9. However, the Ferrari duo needs to get their act together in today's qualifying session if they want to qualify higher up the grid than last Saturday.

The McLaren pair endured a difficult session with, Lando Norris ending up P15, having pushed the limits with an off at the final corner, and Daniel Ricciardo finishing 16th.

Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen was 17th ahead of Haas's Mick Schumacher, while Williams' Nicholas Latifi took 19th and Nikita Mazpin rounded out the standings with another off-track moment, this time at Turn 6.