2021 Austrian GP, Ferrari first practice report: Charles P2, Carlos P3. Ferrari first practice report.

A positive start for Scuderia Ferrari in the first practice session for the second Austrian race at the Red Bull Ring. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished just behind championship leader Max Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver once again setting pace in opening practice in Austria and looking strong for another win at the Red Bull Ring. The Monegasque driver endded the session with a personal best of 1:05:409 (+0.266s from Max Verstappen best lap time of the day) on the soft tyres, while Carlos was very close to his teammate’s lap time, with a 1:05:431).

However, during the long-run simulations, both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz reported issue with graining on the tyres after just a few laps, as the Maranello team will now look into the best set-up and balance to try to avoid or at least limit these problems until Sunday.

At the same time, we could also spot a few plain black unmarked tyres out on track today. These are a new specification of rear tyre that is being tested, with a different construction. Each driver has two sets of these, which can be used in either free practice session, with Charles who used them for a few laps in FP1.

The rest of the session saw teams split between prototype tyre testing and some more race sim programmes, which could be crucial given the threat of rain is set to increase throughout the day.

Results from the first practice session at the Austrian Grand Prix, Round 9 of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship.