Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen set the fastest time in the first practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix, round 11 of the 2022 Formula One World Championship.
Where the Red Bull Ring will host the Formula 1 championship, in a round where a qualifying race will be held, which means great importance for the first session of testing because the teams must adopt final tuning criteria at the end of testing, and no adjustments can be made after that, as the qualifying session that determines the order of The start of the qualifying race will take place on Friday afternoon.
This resulted in all drivers going straight into the test, using medium-hard tires first, then soft-tires.
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These tests saw the red flags raised twice, the first time when Lando Norris’ McLaren stopped working due to a power unit problem, knowing that the Briton was using a new power unit, and the second time because of some parts in the track that required cleaning.
Those stops did not put an end to Verstappen’s high pace, as the world champion clocked 1:06.302 to secure a first place in testing, 0.255s ahead of Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc, while Mercedes showed a good level of performance, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in third places. And the fifth, respectively, and Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull, Mexican Sergio Perez, separated them.
Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate and newest F1 winner Carlos Sainz finished the session seventh, 0.7s off the lead, with the Haas duo in the top 10, with Kevin Magnussen setting the sixth fastest time and teammate Mick Schumacher in pole position. Ninth in front of Alpha Team driver Yuki Tsunoda.
Fernando Alonso was the only representative of the Alpine team in the top ten, with his eighth place, while his colleague Esteban Ocon came in 12th place and separated the Aston Martin duo Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, respectively.
14th place went to Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas, who will start from the bottom of the standings in Sunday’s race due to his use of a new power unit, while Alexander Albon and Guanyu Joe were able to return to driving F1 cars just days after their terrible start-up crash. The British Grand Prix, Albon came 15th in favor of Williams, while Joe came in 18th with Alfa Romeo.
Pierre Gasly finished 16th with the Alpha Tauri team, while Daniel Ricciardo continues to struggle in 17th with McLaren.
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Two exciting races await us at the Red Bull Ring this weekend! ????????
Here are all appointments#Formula 1 # F1 pic.twitter.com/smkG2j1Wnz— Autosport (@AutosportME) July 7, 2022