Austrian F1: it's looking a little closer by Peter Windsor

It's the same F1 venue in Austria this weekend but the Pirelli tyres are softer; they're predicting thunderstorms on Sunday; and lessons, of course, have been learnt over the past few days.

Only 1kph of top speed separated Red Bull-Honda's Max Verstappen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton as they ran on Friday in both light- and heavy-fuel forms. Lewis was slightly quicker on the red tyres; Max had the edge on the longer runs.

And it doesn't end there: the McLaren-Mercedes are wearing less top speed than they did last weekend (but losing none of their pace) while the Ferraris and Alpines are now faster through the speed trap. Peter Windsor analyses the day's events and looks ahead to what could be a dramatic weekend.

About the editor

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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