Lewis Hamilton’s bid to capitalise on his first Ferrari victory suffered a setback in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix as he finished a distant fifth.
Hamilton delivered an unstoppable performance in Barcelona a fortnight ago to claim his maiden triumph for the Italian giants and stake his claim as a genuine title contender.
However, the 41-year-old’s Ferrari team, despite being armed with an engine upgrade in the Styrian Mountains, were off the pace. Hamilton ended a sweltering day six tenths behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli, who is 41 points clear of Hamilton prior to the eighth of 22 scheduled rounds, looked in ominous form as he completed a practice double – first by getting the better of team-mate George Russell before seeing off Oscar Piastri’s McLaren by a commanding 0.237 seconds later in the day.
Russell has not won since the opening round of the season in Melbourne in March and he was an alarming 0.623secs adrift of Antonelli in the second session.
World champion Lando Norris took third for McLaren, one place ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Hamilton raised hope of muscling his way into Mercedes’ intra-team championship fight with a dominant win last time out.
But, speaking in the build-up to this weekend’s event, he shut down talk of completing a record eighth world championship.
And on the evidence of practice, Hamilton faces an uphill task to carry his winning momentum over to Austria, with Ferrari struggling for outright speed.
Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc was even further back in eighth, 0.841 off the leading pace.
Mercedes have won six of the first seven races, with Antonelli taking five consecutive victories to establish a strong lead at the summit of the standings.
And it is McLaren, rather than Ferrari, who are primed to take the battle to the Silver Arrows.
Norris finished 0.325 behind Antonelli. However, the Englishman should have finished with a vastly superior time but for a mistake in the closing stages of his quickest lap.
Russell stopped short of declaring Sunday’s race a “must-win”, but he will be keen to stop the Antonelli juggernaut.
Russell is already 50 points behind Antonelli in the standings and the deficit would have been greater had the latter not retired from second place with an engine failure in Spain.
Red Bull have brought an upgrade to Austria, but Verstappen, whose future with the team remains under scrutiny, finished half-a-second down.
Verstappen is contracted with Red Bull until 2028, but performance-related clauses in his contract would allow him to leave before then.
Asked if Verstappen had provided him with his “word” he will stay at Red Bull next season, team principal Laurent Mekies said: “I’m not asking Max every week if he’s going to stay.
“Max has made clear to us that he wants to continue with the team. It’s equally clear that he needs a fast car for him to be happy with the team.
“It’s not a topic for us. The topic for us is get the car back to where we want it to be. And if the car is back to where we want it to be, there will be no discussion (about Verstappen’s future).”
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