A few minutes later, the field switched to qualifying simulation efforts on the softs, with Sergio Perez and his Racing Point colleague Stroll lighting up the time screens.
The times stayed fixed afterwards as the teams concentrated on long term data gathering, which sealed Daniel Ricciardo (Renault), McLarens Lando Norris and Stroll in P5-P7.
Quickly after Alfa Romeos Kimi Raikkonen skated throughout the gravel trap at the exit of Turn 6– the long left-hander in the center sector– Hamilton transferred to improve that target.
Alex Albon completed 13th in the other Red Bull after spinning in near-identical fashion to his teammates off in FP1 as he lost the rear of his cars and truck running through the right-hander with just over 20 minutes to go.
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While Perez grabbed P1 on a 1m04.945 s, Stroll snagged the gravel trap as he flew through the rapid right of Turn 8 and he lost time, with both Racing Point chauffeurs then demoted by Bottass 1m04.501 s– the Mercedes chauffeur audibly attacking the kerbs at the last 2 corners.
The FIA was again forced to act concerning track limitations, with Kevin Magnussen (15th in the final order) losing a time early for running too wide at Turn 9, and Raikkonen– P19, simply ahead of Latifi at the end– having four laps deleted for repeated running wide at the last turn
Racing Points Sergio Perez declared 3rd location, with the Ferrari and Red Bull motorists ending up well adrift of their leading Class A rivals in the classification.
McLarens Carlos Sainz set the very first genuine flying lap of the session– a 1m06.886 s on the difficult rubber– prior to Lance Stroll deposed him with a 1m05.469 s on the mediums.
Verstappen likewise had a near similar off to Raikkonens simply past the hour mark, keeping his RB16 out of the barriers and back onto the track by using the boundary roadway beyond the Turn 6 gravel to rejoin as the motorists are instructed to so by the race director.
Albon was not the only driver to have a spin at Turn 1, with AlphaTauri driver Daniil Kvyat and Williams novice Nicholas Latifi also going around there in the sessions early stages.
Charles Leclerc finished ninth to end a low-key day for Ferrari, with Sainz rounding out the top 10.
Sebastian Vettel popped his Ferrari into third put on his flying effort on the softs, however he could not beat Perezs time for best of the rest behind Mercedes benchmark.
Max Verstappen wound up 8th as the lead Red Bull driver, however his soft tire effort was 0.911 s slower than Hamiltons finest.
Utilizing the softs fitted to his newly-liveried W11, the world champion shot to the top of the times with a 1m04.304 s– despite encountering a McLaren visiting slowly at the exit of Turn 3.
Mercedes session did end on a down note as Bottas reported issues shifting toss his gears with 10 minutes to go and he was hired to allow the team to examine the issue.
Hamiltons effort put him 0.197 s clear of Bottas, with Perez and Vettel mixed down to third and 4th.
Hamilton finished few laps in the early phases, but when he went out after 25 minutes on the mediums he enhanced over three laps to take the top area with a 1m05.095 s.
Max Verstappen then transferred to the top spot after 20 minutes, with a 1m05.379 s, likewise on the yellow-walled mediums.
At the start of the 90-minute session at the Red Bull Ring, Romain Grosjean led the field out– the Haas chauffeur wanting to offset lost time in FP1, where a brake problem had actually restricted him to the garage for much of the morning session.
Latifi also secured and went off at approaching the tight right-hand left of Turn 3 quickly after his Turn 1 spin, with Bottas, Vettel and Grosjean (who spun and ended up 16th in the last order) also having concerns at that corner throughout the later running.
