MERCEDES LEADS THE WAY IN FINAL AUSTRIAN GP PRACTICE
Mercedes once again set the pace during the final practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix, with George Russell finishing fastest ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli. The session confirmed the strong form shown by Mercedes throughout the weekend and placed the Silver Arrows as the favourites heading into qualifying.
The first minutes of the session were relatively quiet, with only a handful of drivers taking to the track early. Sergio Perez was among the first to leave the garage for Cadillac after the team experienced reliability issues during Friday’s running, while teammate Valtteri Bottas also looked to recover lost time. Soon after, drivers including Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg, Isack Hadjar, Fernando Alonso, Bottas and Lance Stroll joined the action.
The first significant benchmark came from Lando Norris, who briefly moved to the top of the timesheets. Lewis Hamilton followed a few tenths behind, while George Russell was slightly further back during the opening stages. Charles Leclerc’s first attempt was less convincing, leaving the Ferrari driver some distance away from the leading time.
The balance of power changed quickly when Antonelli completed his first serious run on soft tyres and jumped to the top of the standings. Max Verstappen moved into second place shortly afterwards, while Ferrari gradually began to show stronger pace as the session developed.
During their second runs on the same set of tyres, both Ferrari drivers moved much closer to the front. Leclerc climbed into second place, only a small margin behind Antonelli, while Hamilton moved into fourth despite losing time with a mistake at Turn 3. Russell and Verstappen also improved their times and remained firmly in the battle at the front.
As teams switched their focus towards qualifying simulations, Antonelli continued to impress and improved his benchmark even further. Leclerc remained competitive near the top of the order, while Hamilton was unable to find additional time on that particular run. Meanwhile, Russell experimented with major setup changes in an effort to improve the balance of his car before qualifying.
The final runs on fresh soft tyres produced another change in the order. Hamilton delivered a strong lap and closed to within less than a tenth of Antonelli’s leading time, showing clear progress from Ferrari compared to Friday’s performance. Leclerc, however, struggled during his final attempts, running wide at Turn 3 and losing valuable time during his fastest laps.
Russell also found additional pace during the closing minutes and moved to the top of the timesheets, before improving once more with a lap of 1:07.096 to secure first place ahead of Antonelli. The result completed a dominant session for Mercedes and strengthened expectations that the team could be the one to beat in qualifying.
Ferrari’s improvements were one of the main stories of the session, particularly through Hamilton, who finished just over seven hundredths behind the fastest time and appeared capable of challenging for pole position. Leclerc’s pace looked promising but several mistakes prevented him from fully showing his potential.
McLaren and Red Bull remained close enough to stay in contention, with Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen all finishing within a few tenths of the leading Mercedes pair. However, on pure pace, Mercedes appeared to hold the advantage heading into qualifying.
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