» Hamilton completes practice rout

Mercedes-AMG completed a clean sweep of all three practice sessions at the Austrian Grand Prix, as once again Lewis Hamilton shaded teammate Valtteri Bottas on the stopwatch at the Red Bull Ring.

With the final one-hour hit-out used to prepare for this afternoon’s qualifying session, Hamilton continued his strong Friday practice form into FP3 and showed he will be a genuine contender for pole position. The Briton posted a fastest time of 1:04.130, edging Bottas by 0.147 seconds.

Defending Austrian Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen clawed back some of the deficit to the Mercedes’ from FP2, lapping third-fastest in his Red Bull Racing Honda.

Sergio Pérez continued to show good pace in the Racing Point Mercedes, lapping fourth-fastest and one-tenth of a second faster than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

The trio’s teammates – Alexander Albon (Red Bull), Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and Lance Stroll (Racing Point) – completed the top eight, with all three covered by just two-tenths of a second.

Pierre Gasly had his most competitive showing in the AlfaTauri Honda, placing ninth-fastest ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. Hot on their heels were the two factory Renaults of Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, with Norris’ teammate Carlos Sainz thirteenth-fastest.

The session was interrupted just before the halfway point by a heavy accident for Williams rookie Nicholas Latifi. The Canadian ran wide over the sausage kerbs at the exit of Turn 1, lost the back end of his car and hit the barriers. The impact damaged the FW43’s front wing, but was severe enough to trigger the G-force light and force Latifi to take lift back to the circuit medical centre for assessment.

FORMULA 1 ROLEX GROβER PREIS VON ÖSTERREICH 2020 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 3
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:04.130		21
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:04.277	+ 0.147	22
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:04.413	+ 0.283	20
4.	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:04.605	+ 0.475	19
5.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:04.703	+ 0.573	19
6.	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:04.725	+ 0.595	22
7.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:04.851	+ 0.721	20
8.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:04.918	+ 0.788	18
9.	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:04.949	+ 0.819	19
10.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:04.950	+ 0.820	22
11.	Esteban Ocon	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:05.037	+ 0.907	11
12.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:05.088	+ 0.958	13
13.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:05.177	+ 1.047	24
14.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:05.290	+ 1.160	24
15.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:05.363	+ 1.233	18
16.	George Russell	Williams Racing FW43	1:05.565	+ 1.435	21
17.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:05.648	+ 1.518	18
18.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:05.654	+ 1.524	16
19.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:05.773	+ 1.643	19
20.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing FW43	1:07.049	+ 2.919	6