Austria: pre-qualifying 2021

And so we return to the same circuit that saw Verstappen achieve a seemingly effortless victory. More pain for Hamilton and Mercedes, or can they bounce back? And what of the weather? And the tyres are softer than last time out.

In the first practice session Verstappen was fastest, which hardly counts as a surprise, but what was a surprise was that the Ferraris followed him a quarter of a second down the road. It was only a small gap further back to Bottas, Tsunoda, and Raikkonen. Next up was Hamilton, then came Perez, Gasly, and Norris.

It was all change in second practice, with Hamilton leading Bottas at the top of the timesheets. Verstappen was two-tenths off his title rival, but four-tenths ahead of Stroll. Vettel, Tsunoda, Gasly, Alonso, Norris, and Giovinazzi rounded out the top 10.

Come final practice Verstappen was fastest by a large margin, over half a second on Bottas and six-tenths on Hamilton (the Briton could’ve been within four-tenths but had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits). Gasly’s time was just three-thousandths off Hamilton. Giovinazzi and Sainz followed closely, ten came Perez, Alonso, and Leclerc.

A quick note that the temperature on Friday was 21C but both qualifying and the race are forecast to be around 27C, which may make a difference.

At the moment it’s looking like Verstappen’s set for another strong performance, though trying to work out how the midfield will stack up for Q3 is tricky as a tricky thing.

I don’t offer many qualifying tips but have decided to back Bottas for pole each way at 9 (9.5 with boost, third the odds top 2). He’s around the same pace as Hamilton and last time out was faster than him. And not just in Q3 but Q1 and Q2 as well.

Morris Dancer

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