Hamilton underlines Merc pace in final practice

Austrian Grand Prix – Lewis Hamilton has led another Mercedes 1-2 in the final practice session at the Red Bull Ring.

Click here for the complete results from FP3 (Third Practice) – 2020 Austrian GP.

Lewis Hamilton has set the pace in the final practice session in Austria, making it three out of three ahead of qualifying. The Mercedes driver used a fresh set of Soft tyres on his qualifying simulation to clock a 1:04.130. This was enough to keep him 0.147 clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas on the same compound.

The closest competitor to the Merc drivers was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. After a quiet first half of the session using the Medium tyre, Verstappen strapped on some fresh Softs to do a 1:04.413 and 0.283 down on the lead time. His third sector time included a slight error through the last corner, meaning he quite possibly could have gone marginally quicker.

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was P4, 0.475 down on Hamilton’s time, as the Mexican continued to show strongly in the RP20. His late Soft tyre run time was enough to put him ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver briefly topped the times after his flying lap, but was dropped down to P5 by the chequered flag. His practice time was 0.573 from the front.

Alex Albon was P6 in the second Red Bull Racing, 0.3 down on his teammate’s time on the Softs, while Sebastian Vettel finished P7. The German was just over a tenth down on Leclerc.

Lance Stroll finished P8 in the second Racing Point, and was just on three tenths down on Perez’ time. Pierre Gasly snuck into the top ten with P9 for Alpha Tauri, and Lando Norris rounded out the top ten.

Esteban Ocon led the Renault charge in P11, just ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo. They were just under a second from the front.

Carlos Sainz finished practice P13 in the second McLaren, and Daniil Kvyat was P14 in the second Alpha Tauri. Romain Grosjean finished P15 for Haas, and George Russell signalled improvement for Williams as he took P16. His time was 1:05.363 and was quicker than the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and both Alfa Romeo drivers Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen.

Nicholas Latifi was P20, having crashed out during the session. He lost the rear of his Williams going through Turn 1 and hit the barriers. Suffering some front and rear damage, Latifi was uninjured and apologised for the incident over team radio.

Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix begins at 2PM GMT.