Red Bull’s Max Verstappen enjoyed a dominant Friday Practice ahead of 2021 Styrian Grand Prix as he topped both sessions.
With rain forecast throughout both practice sessions as is the case throughout the entire weekend, teams faced the prospect of having to maximise any free dry-weather running which luckily fell for the majority of both sessions.
Verstappen consequently was quickest overall from McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon as we bring a full roundup of Friday’s Practice around the Red Bull Ring.
FP1
With rain threatening throughout the day, teams were in no mood to hang around with a packed FP1 programme in case FP2 is washed out by predicted thunderstorms.
Verstappen therefore set the pace from the get-go with 1m 07.454 ahead of Hamilton and Gasly as Alfa Romeo’s Robert Kubica went for a third minute spin at Remus corner, whilst everyone else set about swiftly lowering their lap times as Verstappen ultimately found himself fastest upon completion of opening runs.
Gasly however was just 0.059s down on Verstappen ahead of an early switch to qualifying simulations as Hamilton went quickest on 1m 06.390, before finding time to eventually finish 0.422s down at the flag as Verstappen topped the session with a 1m 05.910 on his first soft tyre qualifying simulation lap.
Gasly meanwhile again sandwiched the title rivals as he put his AlphaTauri second after Valtteri Bottas posted a 1m 06.155 to briefly go second, until his lap was deleted following a breach of track limits at Turn 10 as he eventually finished fourth quickest ahead of Yuki Tsunoda who rounded out the top five.
Sergio Perez was the last driver to have a spin after he dipped his left tyres just too wide on the exit of Turn Four as he found himself 13th quickest, with race simulations thereafter running largely smoothly except for drivers encountering one another in traffic.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 05.910 |
| 2 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.256 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.422 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.476 |
| 5 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.487 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.609 |
| 7 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.641 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.674 |
| 9 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 0.704 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.719 |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.720 |
| 12 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.759 |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.786 |
| 14 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 0.798 |
| 15 | George Russell | Williams | + 0.938 |
| 16 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.951 |
| 17 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 1.270 |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.563 |
| 19 | Robert Kubica | Alfa Romeo | + 1.913 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 2.171 |
FP2
Rain continued to linger above the circuit as everyone except for Gasly and Bottas dashed out to bank some laps in case the wet weather fell, although only a ten minute drizzle emerged early on as Verstappen initially went top on the hard tyres with 1m 06.722.
Fernando Alonso then posted 1m 06.551 on mediums to briefly go top until Hamilton went quickest by 0.193 seconds, only to be displaced by Verstappen on 1m 06.192.
Bottas meanwhile decided to go straight for a soft qualifying simulation which put him 0.059s behind Verstappen in second, until the sun began to warm the surface, with Vettel then Hamilton going top before Ocon displaced the Brit by 0.006s with a 1m 05.790.
Shortly before the half hour mark, Verstappen on soft tyres posted a session topping 1m 05.412 with Ricciardo one minute later slotting into second and 0.336s off the championship leader, ahead of Ocon, Hamilton and Alonso who round out the top five.
Race simulations meanwhile went smoothly for all except Bottas who suffered an embarrassing spin as he left his pit box, as he suddenly lost the rear-end of his Mercedes and spun in the pit-lane narrowly avoiding any injury or damage to those out of their garages but was consequently hit with a three-place grid penalty.
Gasly ultimately failed to get out on track after his AlphaTauri was kept in the garage with a power unit sensor issue.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 05.412 |
| 2 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.336 |
| 3 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.378 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.384 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.415 |
| 6 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 0.522 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.582 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.667 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.677 |
| 10 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 0.733 |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.735 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.839 |
| 13 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.858 |
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 0.885 |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.039 |
| 16 | George Russell | Williams | + 1.216 |
| 17 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.474 |
| 18 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 1.992 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 2.257 |
| 20 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | No Time Set |
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