Lewis Hamilton makes it a clean sweep for dominant Mercedes in Austria practice

Formula 1

Hamilton makes it a clean sweep for dominant Mercedes in Austria practice

Valtteri Bottas was again forced to settle for second spot

Ian Parkes

Saturday 4 July 2020 13:03

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Lewis Hamilton made it a clean sweep of Austrian Grand Prix practice in a Mercedes now deemed legal following a protest from Formula 1 rival Red Bull.

After finishing top of the timesheet in both 90-minute sessions on Friday at the Red Bull Ring, Red Bull opted to launch a protest against the DAS system, only for the FIA to give it the green light following a lengthy hearing.

With the team clear for the hour-long FP3, Hamilton responded by again leading the way in his W11, posting the quickest time of the weekend so far with a lap of one minute 04.130secs.

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Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was again forced to settle for second spot, finishing 0.147s adrift of the six-time F1 champion, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen third quickest, almost three-tenths of a second off the pace.

That time was lost entirely in the final sector of what is the shortest track on the calendar in terms of lap time, an area where the Mercedes appears capable of taking it flat out.

Sergio Perez again suggested Racing Point will be firmly in the mix for qualifying, with the Mexican almost half-a-second down in fourth position, followed by Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari, and Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Alex Albon.

Sebastian Vettel, who has suggested Ferrari has virtually no hope of fighting for pole, was 0.721s down in seventh, followed by Racing Point's Lance Stroll, with Pierre Gasly for AlphaTauri and McLaren's Lando Norris rounding out the top 10.

Renault duo Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo appear to face a fight to make into the top 10 at a track where the team has struggled over the years as they were down in 11th and 12 positions respectively, both nine-tenths adrift.

Williams, meanwhile, face a race against time to get Nicolas Latifi's car ready for qualifying after he suffered the first crash of the weekend 25 minutes into the hour-long session.

The rookie Canadian lost control of his car exiting turn one, spinning into a barrier, resulting in considerable damage to the front and the rear.

Unsurprisingly, Latifi propped up the timesheet, finishing almost three seconds adrift of Hamilton.

Before you go...

"Very, very difficult now" to add DAS to Red Bull - Horner