Leclerc quickest as Verstappen, Bottas crash out in Austria FP2

Charles Leclerc led Ferrari to the front of the pack as Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen both crashed heavily in second practice for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday.

In a truncated session interrupted by two red flag periods, Leclerc was able to finish fastest for Ferrari with a best lap time of 1m05.086s as a number of drivers were caught out by windy conditions at the Red Bull Ring.

Verstappen was the first driver to bring his session to an early end when he lost his car midway through the final corner, causing him to pirouette into the wall and damage the rear of the Red Bull RB15.

The session was quickly red flagged while Verstappen emerged from his car unharmed, leaving the team reliant on teammate Pierre Gasly’s data for the remainder of the session.

Drivers quickly looked to move on to qualifying simulations when the session resumed, only for Bottas to trigger a second red flag when he crashed out minute later.

Bottas lost his car at Turn 6, causing him to spin off through the gravel and into the wall front-first, taking the front two wheels off his Mercedes W10 car.

Bottas managed to get out of his car unassisted, but was taken to the medical centre as a precaution after a crash impact of 25G was recorded.

Sebastian Vettel almost became a third crasher when he spun off at the final corner in a similar fashion to Verstappen, only to get his Ferrari stopped just before hitting the wall. While it ruined his lap after sitting six-tenths of a second up on the fastest time, Vettel was able to hobble back to the pits without damage.

Vettel’s spin did spark yellow flags in the final sector, forcing Leclerc to back off through the final sector, but the Monegasque was nevertheless able to still set the fastest time, beating Bottas’ existing benchmark by three-tenths of a second.

Pierre Gasly finished the session third for Red Bull ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who didn’t get a full qualifying simulation in and opted to switch to long runs later in the session, while Carlos Sainz completed the top five for McLaren.

Romain Grosjean took sixth for Haas ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Vettel ending FP2 in eighth place, getting back out after his spin for a short run on Hard tyres.

Max Verstappen ended up ninth-fastest despite his crash, while Lando Norris completed the top 10 for McLaren.