REPORT: Lewis Hamilton quickest in FP3 at the Styrian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton ended Max Verstappen's reign in free practice sessions for the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix by going quickest in FP3. Verstappen looked on course to complete the set by coming out on top once more in practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring, but Hamilton pulled it out of the bag. The Brit's time of 1:04.369 was 0.204 seconds quicker than Verstappen, and with qualifying coming up later on Saturday, the Dutchman will need to find some pace. Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez and perhaps surprisingly Yuki Tsunoda rounded off the top five.

As it happened

FP3 proved to be a waiting game for all the big hitters, with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin the only drivers out on track for the first 10 minutes, barring one completed lap for Pierre Gasly.

Alpine then sent out Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso who immediately went to the top of the standings, around four seconds quicker than the times' of the Haas cars. 

With 20 minutes of the session completed, it was surprisingly George Russell's time of 1:06.454 that was the quickest, with the likes of Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc and the two Alpine drivers unable to topple the Williams driver.

It took Valtteri Bottas' entrance onto the track for Russell to be demoted from top spot, but the Finn's Mercedes teammate was unable to better Russell's time on his first flying lap.

Verstappen decided to execute his usual tactic of waiting in the garage for as long as possible, only entering the track with 35 minutes of the session left.

However, he went straight to the top of the timings by four tenths, before he extended that lead to 0.719 seconds to P2 with just under 30 minutes left. It was Pierre Gasly, just like in FP1, who was second at that stage, and with Yuki Tsunoda in P5, ahead of Hamilton, with half the session remaining, the Honda engine looked incredibly quick.

McLaren, however, were down in P15 with Daniel Ricciardo and P18 with Lando Norris with just 25 minutes of the session remaining.

The drivers then took the opportunity to rest in the pits with every driver heading for the garage with 20 minutes to go. However, then the clouds came over and the majority of drivers put on a new set of soft tyres, and the times quickly came down. Hamilton and Bottas went P1 and P2, whilst Verstappen stayed in the garage, and Schumacher put in an impressive lap to go P15, ahead of both McLaren's.

Traffic became an issue with the vast amount of cars out on the short Red Bull Ring track, and several fast laps were compromised by slower cars.

Hamilton managed to stay top of the standings, but Verstappen was held up by the aforementioned traffic, so it will be extremely tight in qualifying.

AlphaTauri look strong

After Gasly put his car into P2 in the first free practice sessions, the early signs were promising for AlphaTauri, and FP3 confirmed this. Tsunoda finished the session in fifth, whilst Gasly was in sixth.

McLaren struggle

Lando Norris ended the session in P19, and whilst this doesn't tell the whole story, it's still worrying. His best lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits, but to be so far down is concerning. Daniel Ricciardo was also down in 17th place, and that was mostly down to pace. They could face a struggle to get through to Q3.

Final Standings

P1 - Lewis Hamilton (1:04.369)

P2 - Max Verstappen

P3 - Valtteri Bottas

P4 - Sergio Perez

P5 - Yuki Tsunoda

P6 - Pierre Gasly

P7 - Charles Leclerc

P8 - Fernando Alonso

P9 - Lance Stroll

P10 - Sebastian Vettel

P11 - Antonio Giovinazzi

P12 - Esteban Ocon

P13 - Carlos Sainz

P14 - George Russell

P15 - Kimi Raikkonen

P16 - Mick Schumacher

P17 - Daniel Ricciardo

P18 - Nicholas Latifi

P19 - Lando Norris

P20 - Nikita Mazepin