George Russell has topped the timing charts in the final practice session at the Austrian GP, ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton. The Briton's lap time of 1:07.096 was enough to edge out Antonelli and Hamilton, setting the pace with a statement to the rest of the grid
ahead of Qualifying later today. After what was a slow start to FP3 action,
Lando Norris was the first of the frontrunners to set a lap time, his 1:07.832 was 0.049s ahead of his teammate
Oscar Piastri, and three tenths up on Lewis Hamilton. But when Antonelli finally got out on track with just under 40 minutes to go, he went three tenths up on Norris on his first flyer.
Just over halfway, Antonelli improved on that lap to go four tenths quicker than teammate Russell in P2, with Leclerc, Verstappen and the
McLaren duo all within a tenth and a half of the
Mercedes Briton with 25 minutes to go. Such a gap between Antonelli and his rivals even led to Sky
F1's Karun Chandhok to comment that the Italian was in a
"different zone." In the final 15 minutes, all the frontrunners put on a fresh set of soft tyres, with Antonelli unable to improve. Hamilton, meanwhile, leaped into P2, just 0.077s behind the Italian, before Russell set a strong lap in the latter stages on used tyres to go top. While Hamilton will no doubt be pleased to be so close to the Mercedes drivers after a tricky first few sessions, he did lock up late on at Turn 3, telling his team to check his
Ferrari gearbox.
In fourth came Piastri, ahead of Norris and Verstappen in P5 and P6, respectively. Leclerc and Isack Hadjar made up seventh and eighth, while the top ten at FP1 was rounded up by Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad.
Here are the full results from FP3 at the Austrian GP:
Austrian Grand Prix Results
Practice 1
Practice 2
Practice 3
ALL
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
|---|
| | MercedesMER | - | 1:7.096 |
| | MercedesMER | - | 1:7.134 |
| | FerrariFER | - | 1:7.211 |
| | McLarenMCL | - | 1:7.344 |
| | McLarenMCL | - | 1:7.360 |
| | Red Bull RacingRBR | - | 1:7.369 |
| | FerrariFER | - | 1:7.452 |
| | Red Bull RacingRBR | - | 1:7.912 |
| | Racing BullsRCB | - | 1:8.031 |
| | Racing BullsRCB | - | 1:8.109 |
| | AlpineALP | - | 1:8.193 |
| | AudiAUD | - | 1:8.303 |
| | AudiAUD | - | 1:8.311 |
| | AlpineALP | - | 1:8.394 |
| | HaasHAA | - | 1:8.529 |
| | HaasHAA | - | 1:8.707 |
| | WilliamsWIL | - | 1:8.843 |
| | WilliamsWIL | - | 1:8.992 |
| | CadillacCAD | - | 1:9.532 |
| | CadillacCAD | - | 1:9.740 |
| | Aston MartinAST | - | 1:10.421 |
| | Aston MartinAST | - | 1:10.567 |