Max Verstappen remained on top in the second practice session for the Styrian Grand Prix.
However the stewards are investigating a bizarre incident involving Valtteri Bottas, who spun his Mercedes while leaving the pit box. He came to a stop in front of the McLaren pit box.A group of his rival team’s mechanics helped Bottas continue on his way. But McLaren made it clear to race director Michael Masi they were unimpressed with his driving. “Michael that’s absolutely ridiculous,” said McLaren’s team manager Paul James. “He could have taken our guys out there, and the pit wall.”
After a very strong showing in first practice, when he was second-fastest, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was prevented from running in the afternoon session after Honda spotted a potential problem in the data.
Drivers got their qualifying simulation runs in relatively early in the session, possibly concerned about dropping track temperatures or the arrival of more rain.
Verstappen’s 1’05.412 was comfortably the fastest time, however drivers were generally faster than in the morning session with seven setting times below 1’06.
Among those were both Alpine cars and both McLarens. Sebastian Vettel set the sixth-fastest time for Aston Martin, team mate Stroll just outside a 1’06 by only 0.79 of a second.
Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas ended the second hour some distance back from their team mates. Perez was ninth-fastest and more than half a second slower than Verstappen. Bottas, after his spin, was 12th and more than four tenths of a second off Lewis Hamilton’s time.
Antonio Giovinazzi had another strong session, finishing 10th-fastest and the top Ferrari-powered car in the times again.
Despite concerns rain would disrupt proceedings, it never fell hard enough to force drives to move from slick tyres to anything else. Track temperatures were similar to those seen in the morning session. At the start of the hour it was 21C air temperature and 41C on the track, just a few degrees lower than in first practice.
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2021 Styrian Grand Prix second practice result
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’05.412 | 37 | |
| 2 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’05.748 | 0.336 | 34 |
| 3 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’05.790 | 0.378 | 34 |
| 4 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’05.796 | 0.384 | 34 |
| 5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’05.827 | 0.415 | 38 |
| 6 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’05.934 | 0.522 | 37 |
| 7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’05.994 | 0.582 | 39 |
| 8 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’06.079 | 0.667 | 36 |
| 9 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda | 1’06.089 | 0.677 | 36 |
| 10 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’06.145 | 0.733 | 36 |
| 11 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’06.147 | 0.735 | 38 |
| 12 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’06.251 | 0.839 | 31 |
| 13 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’06.270 | 0.858 | 39 |
| 14 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’06.297 | 0.885 | 40 |
| 15 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’06.451 | 1.039 | 39 |
| 16 | 63 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’06.628 | 1.216 | 39 |
| 17 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’06.886 | 1.474 | 29 |
| 18 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari | 1’07.404 | 1.992 | 30 |
| 19 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’07.669 | 2.257 | 32 |
| 20 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 0 |
Second practice visual gaps
Max Verstappen – 1’05.412
+0.336 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’05.748
+0.378 Esteban Ocon – 1’05.790
+0.384 Lewis Hamilton – 1’05.796
+0.415 Fernando Alonso – 1’05.827
+0.522 Sebastian Vettel – 1’05.934
+0.582 Lando Norris – 1’05.994
+0.667 Lance Stroll – 1’06.079
+0.677 Sergio Perez – 1’06.089
+0.733 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’06.145
+0.735 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’06.147
+0.839 Valtteri Bottas – 1’06.251
+0.858 Charles Leclerc – 1’06.270
+0.885 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’06.297
+1.039 Yuki Tsunoda – 1’06.451
+1.216 George Russell – 1’06.628
+1.474 Mick Schumacher – 1’06.886
+1.992 Nikita Mazepin – 1’07.404
+2.257 Nicholas Latifi – 1’07.669
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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2021 Styrian Grand Prix
- Sainz praises Ferrari “teamwork” with Mercedes after unlapping himself from Hamilton
- W Series boss says it will not become a “billionaire girls’ club”
- Mercedes has more than just aerodynamic upgrades coming for 2021 car
- Alonso: F1 rule to ‘improve the show’ helps the big teams
- Is stamping out ‘burn-out’ celebrations a killjoy over-reaction?
nickthegreek (@nickthegreek)
25th June 2021, 15:07
well, that was weird
Rockgod (@rockgod)
25th June 2021, 15:08
In all my years if F1 this is the first time I saw anything like this. Did it ever happen before, just coming out of pits?
Jesper (@jesperfey13)
25th June 2021, 15:11
I remember Grosjean in Silverstone last year, but that was coming out of the pits
MattDS (@mattds)
25th June 2021, 15:12
@rockgod I can’t remember anyone ever doing that, no. We had D’Ambrosio who spun while coming in, I can remember some that spun while exiting (when the pits has a bend), but exiting in middle of the pitlane? Nope.
Omar R (@)
25th June 2021, 15:15
Mercedes was making sure they get a slow pitstop.
OldIron
25th June 2021, 15:23
They are pretty good at that already, do they really need to do extra practice?
melanos
25th June 2021, 16:39
all the teams are trying very hard to improve their 43 hour Monaco record but are still very far behind. Merc always does it best.
erikje
25th June 2021, 15:15
Maybe time for an investigation in the tire warming procedure at Mercedes.
Racingdave
25th June 2021, 15:20
Or lack of….
Are their blankets on?
Didn’t see the incident but Merc or Bottas need to explain!
Niki1010
25th June 2021, 15:20
The irony: less than 24 hours after the FIA aided Mercedes by introducing new “safety measures” to claw back Red Bull, the whiners of Mercedes cause the most dangerous situation in the pitlane in almost a decade.
Hey FIA: Citing safety, Mercedes should replace Bottas with Russell.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th June 2021, 1:01
Ahaha, indeed!
Ju88sy (@)
25th June 2021, 15:21
The best camera view was from the cameraman just past the McLaren garage as Bottas comes sideways up the pit lane. Very odd.
Sam Donaldson (ABC News)
25th June 2021, 15:21
Second practice visual gaps does not align with practice result table above it!!!
JL (@j-l)
25th June 2021, 15:24
That was an unsettling spin! Could be ugly.
Robbie (@robbie)
25th June 2021, 15:25
Meanwhile, in the name of wheel nut safety in the pits RBR now needs a wheel gun sensor, while Mercedes has a nut behind the wheel in the pits.
Search
25th June 2021, 15:54
That had me in stitches!
David
25th June 2021, 16:41
Indeed ‘2021 Styrian Grand Prix second practice result’ timetable was copied from FP1
@Hazel
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
25th June 2021, 15:26
Ferraris are nowhere. How they end up building such flawed and inconsistent cars each and every year without fail is beyond me.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
25th June 2021, 21:09
Their long runs Look a lot more competitive though. I wouldn’t xo
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
25th June 2021, 21:12
*I wouldn’t count them out yet. They are quicker than practice might suggest.
Schumi_alonso
26th June 2021, 2:16
This is starting to look as painful as last year, if not worse.
Jere (@jerejj)
25th June 2021, 15:27
Mclaren’s mechanics were kind by voluntarily helping Bottas.
David
25th June 2021, 16:42
They are very consistent at building inconsistentent and flawed cars :)
john
25th June 2021, 19:51
Somethings not right with the data in this post.
gasly didn’t even take part in the second practise.
Ross
25th June 2021, 21:23
I find it weird that ricciardo gets a mention every time he’s behind Norris. When he’s finally looking a bit more comfortable in the car and puts it p2 it doesn’t rate a mention…
@HoHum (@hohum)
25th June 2021, 22:29
Very weird, this whole article is out of kilter.
@HoHum (@hohum)
25th June 2021, 23:36
Even more weird, I went to BBC for DanR coverage, no mention there either. Was there another loss of internet at RBR during P2 ?
At least the times have been corrected, but has DR offended the entire press corp ? seems very unlikely. Oh well, off to youtube’s F1 channel.