SPIELBERG: Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg showed they were undaunted by a new track yesterday, dominating the first practice sessions ahead of tomorrow’s returning Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton set the fastest lap of the day at one minute and 9.542 seconds, finishing 0.377 seconds ahead of team-mate and current championship leader Rosberg in the second practice session.
In the morning, it was the German who had led the field ahead of Hamilton around the 4.3km Red Bull Ring track.
The two Mercedes drivers were the only ones to dip below the 1min 10sec mark, showing they were at ease on the historic Spielberg track, despite this being their first F1 outing on it.
The last time Spielberg hosted a Formula One event was in 2003 so yesterday’s free practice was the drivers’ first real opportunity to get to know the track and gather information ahead of Sunday’s race.
Prior experience indeed seemed to play a major role with Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa and Jenson Button — all of whom raced here a decade ago — clocking some of the fastest times behind Mercedes.
But drivers have insisted their initial lack of knowledge will hardly matter once the first practice sessions are done and dusted.
Ferrari’s Alonso was closest
to Mercedes’s times in both sessions yesterday but still 0.928 seconds behind Hamilton in his fastest lap. Felipe Massa was fourth and fifth fastest.
Red Bull, meanwhile, struggled despite racing at home, with four-time champion Sebastian Vettel and Canadian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo setting just the sixth and eighth fastest times, over 1.2 seconds behind Hamilton.
Even that was an improvement on the morning session, when they finished 15th and 13th.
Following Ricciardo’s victory two weeks ago — which broke Mercedes’s six-race winning streak — Red Bull had hoped to use their home advantage in Austria to narrow the gap on their arch rivals.
But Vettel yesterday admitted: “We’re not the favourites going into this weekend, we’d love to be but we’re not quite there yet.”
“We’ve still got a bit more I think in our pockets, but... I don’t think we’re as quick as the Mercs,” Ricciardo agreed.
Mercedes have a 119-point lead on the Austrian team in the constructors’ standings.
“Good practice session today! Need to take this into tomorrow for qualifying,” Hamilton tweeted after yesterday’s sessions. AFP
