Hamilton tops FP2 in Austria despite issues

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton topped the times for the second free practice session at the Red Bull Ring on Friday finishing just over a tenth of a second faster than title rival, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel while his teammate, Valtteri Bottas was third a further tenth back.

However it wasn't all clear sailing for Hamilton, the Brit suffering with a faulty sparkplug that curtailed his running for a brief period of time. Other than that, the two Mercedes ran brilliantly on all types of compound supplied by Pirelli. Bottas did have a minor spin however, but there was plenty of that throughout the session.

“We still have a few unanswered questions after today's practice sessions but it was nevertheless a pretty promising Friday,” said James Allison. “We ran all three tyre compounds and they were unusually close in performance at this circuit. But it was clear that our car was decently balanced on all of them. We showed good pace on both low and high fuel, although we have the feeling there is still a little more to be found at the lower fuel level. But it was a good start overall.”

Max Verstappen was fourth fastest for Red Bull Racing followed closely by Baku winner and teammate, Daniel Ricciardo.

Kimi Raikkonen was sixth followed by Kevin Magnusson Fernando Alonso Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean rounding out the top ten.