Hamilton retains dominant position and fastest time of 2nd GP free practice session in Austria

The Englishman Lewis Hamilton maintained dominance in the second session of the Austrian GP's free practice of Formula 1, this Friday in Spielberg, and came back to set the fastest time.

As in the first session, his team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who finished at 0177, was the only one able to follow him. His best lap, however, was with ultra-thin tires.

The novelty was the German Sebastian Vettel, who this time managed to put Ferrari ahead of the Red Bull cars. Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth and Dutchman Max Verstappen took the fifth fastest lap. Finnish Kimi Raikonen finished the list of six fastest

The novelty outside the Top 6 was the presence of the Russian Sergey Sirotkin, who was replaced in the first session by Robert Kubica in Williams. Frenchman Romain Grosjean maintained a good pace with Haas and finished seventh, ahead of his Danish team-mate Kevin Magnussen. In ninth place was the Frenchman Pierre Gasly de Toro Rosso, who was suspended and who scored the only red flag of both sessions.

The Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne from McLaren closed the Top 10. Already the Spanish Fernando Alonso, his teammate, was only the 19th and penultimate. He was only ahead of Canadian Lance Stroll, 20th with his Williams.

Formula 1 drivers return to the track at Spielberg on Saturday for the third free practice session at 7am. Then, at 10 o'clock, there will be the qualifications for the grid. The race will start Sunday at 10:10

The GP of Austria is the ninth stage of the season. Until now, Lewis Hamilton leads the drivers' World Championship with 145 points, closely followed by Sebastian Vettel, who is in second place with 131 points.