Practice report
Formula 1 Styrian GP
Styrian GP: Verstappen pips Bottas by 0.043s in FP2
Max Verstappen set the fastest time for Red Bull in second practice for the Styrian Grand Prix on Friday afternoon as former teammate Daniel Ricciardo crashed early on.
Luke Smith
Edited: Jul 13, 2020, 2:38 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
In a session that could end up setting the grid for should qualifying be cancelled due to forecast rain, 2019 Austrian Grand Prix winner Verstappen managed to edge out Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas for top spot in the timesheets.
Verstappen recorded a best laptime of 1m03.660s to take top spot for Red Bull, making the most of extended qualifying simulation running through FP2.
The session was red-flagged after just 13 minutes following a hefty crash for Renault driver Ricciardo at the penultimate corner.
Ricciardo lost the rear-end of his Renault R.S.20 car as he turned in to the fast right-hand corner, causing him to spin backwards into the barrier.
The crash left the car with a damaged left-hand side and rear wing, while Ricciardo appeared to be limping slightly as he walked away from the incident.
He went to the medical centre for a check-up and was subsequently declared fit, but was shown to still be limping when returning through the paddock.
A 15-minute wait followed under the red flag as the barrier repairs were completed and Ricciardo's car was returned to the pits, with Renault facing a sizeable repair job this evening.
Knowing FP2 could set the grid for Sunday's race, teams opted to spend a lot of time on their qualifying simulations mid-way through the session.
The Racing Point duo of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll set the initial pace during their soft-tyre runs, sitting 1-2 at the halfway point in the session. Stroll completed three separate runs on fresh tyres, while Perez was able to get within one-hundredth of his Q3 time from last Saturday.
Championship leader Bottas was able to depose Perez at the head of the timesheets by almost two-tenths of a second, only to then be pipped by the Red Bull of Verstappen.
Verstappen had a handful of times deleted for exceeding track limits, but managed to hook up a lap on a set of soft-compound tyres to grab top spot by 0.043 seconds.
It left Bottas to settle for second, but Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton struggled to a lowly sixth place after struggling during his qualifying simulation runs.
The team reported that Hamilton was unhappy with the car, prompting it to complete a set-up change and check the alignment of the W11 before investigating his struggles this evening.
Perez and Stroll were able to retain third and fourth in the final classification ahead of McLaren's Carlos Sainz Jr. in fifth, with Hamilton following in P6.
Alexander Albon ended the session seventh fastest for Red Bull, surviving two spins during the session, while Lando Norris took eighth in the sister McLaren.
Ferrari had another difficult session as Charles Leclerc led its charge in ninth, but teammate Sebastian Vettel finished a lowly 16th, having feared damage to the right-hand side of the car after clouting the kerbs through the final sector.
Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10 for Renault ahead of the AlphaTauri duo of Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat, whose attempts at practicing giving a slipstream ended in an angry tirade over the radio from Gasly.
Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi finished 13th and 14th respectively for Alfa Romeo, followed by George Russell in 15th for Williams, who returned to the cockpit after giving up FP1 to reserve driver Jack Aitken.
Also enjoying his first extended running of the weekend for Williams was Nicholas Latifi, who was sidelined in FP1 by a gearbox issue. Latifi ended the session 17th, one place behind Vettel.
Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Roman Grosjean wound up in 18th and 19th place, more than two seconds off Verstappen's benchmark, and only ahead of Ricciardo who failed to set a time.
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 27 1'03.660 2
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 36 1'03.703 0.043 3
Sergio Perez Racing Point 43 1'03.877 0.217 4
Lance Stroll Racing Point 43 1'04.241 0.581 5
Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren 45 1'04.333 0.673 6
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 27 1'04.348 0.688 7
Alex Albon Red Bull 29 1'04.437 0.777 8
Lando Norris McLaren 31 1'04.541 0.881 9
Charles Leclerc Ferrari 35 1'04.706 1.046 10
Esteban Ocon Renault 32 1'04.746 1.086 11
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 37 1'04.757 1.097 12
Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri 34 1'05.050 1.390 13
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 23 1'05.152 1.492 14
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 36 1'05.365 1.705 15
George Russell Williams 34 1'05.588 1.928 16
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 40 1'05.613 1.953 17
Nicholas Latifi Williams 49 1'05.655 1.995 18
Kevin Magnussen Haas 36 1'05.790 2.130 19
Romain Grosjean Haas 38 1'06.096 2.436 20
Daniel Ricciardo Renault 2 View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Racing Point has "no space" for Vettel for 2021
Next article 2020 F1 Styrian GP practice results, what if qualifying is cancelled?
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Luke Smith
1998 Belgian GP: When the Schumachers went to war
Formula 1
Formula 1 Jul 22, 2025
1998 Belgian GP: When the Schumachers went to war
The race that transformed perceptions of Red Bull
Formula 1
Formula 1 Apr 19, 2023
The race that transformed perceptions of Red Bull
Hamilton in the process of selecting Brad Pitt’s co-star for F1 movie
Formula 1
Formula 1 Feb 18, 2023
Hamilton in the process of selecting Brad Pitt’s co-star for F1 movie
Latest news
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
53 min
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
2 h
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far
Formula E
FE Formula E 4 h
2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 5 h
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe