Lewis Hamilton began his quest for a record-equaling seventh world title by topping the times on Friday as Formula One roared back with a full day’s practice and an official technical protest of his Mercedes car at the belated season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.
Three months after the canceled traditional curtain-raiser in Australia and six months on from the last race, it was business as usual from the dominant newly repainted Black Arrows Mercedes men, with Valtteri Bottas completing a familiar one-two as the sport reignited after its longest off-season.
“It’s great to be back,” said Hamilton, who is seeking to draw level with seven-time champion Michael Schumacher in the record books. “It’s been a long time coming, so it feels great to feel the new car for the first time since February.”
Photo: AP
“It’s quite a big difference to the one we got to test at Silverstone and I don’t remember what I was like in February, to be honest. It was so long ago,” he said.
Hamilton said he would take his initial supremacy over his competitors “with a pinch of salt.”
“What’s positive is the car felt good today,” he said. “It definitely feels like in general, compared to last year, we have continued to improve it and that is a positive.”
Speaking before rivals Red Bull protested officially at Mercedes’ innovative new steering system, Hamilton said that it was difficult to say whether he had an edge over his rivals after just one day.
“That’s difficult to say — it’s definitely looking good, but you can never take too much from practice and, if you look at some of the other teams, they were maybe down on power modes or up on power modes or fuel or whatever it may be.”
“So we’ll take it with a pinch of salt, try to improve the car tonight and come back with it tomorrow,” he said about yesterday’s qualifying, which began after press time last night.
Hamilton, in commanding form in the morning and afternoon sessions, was quickest in 1 minute, 4.304 seconds to lead Bottas by 0.197 seconds and third-placed Sergio Perez, in Racing Point’s pink Mercedes, by 0.657 seconds.
Sebastian Vettel, in his last season with Ferrari, was fourth for the Italian outfit ahead of McLaren-bound Daniel Ricciardo of Renault and Lando Norris of McLaren.
Lance Stroll, in the second Racing Point, was seventh ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari and his future teammate Carlos Sainz of McLaren.
Verstappen revealed afterward that his performance was heavily curtailed by running with a broken front wing shortly before his Red Bull team confirmed, on a day of hectic action, that they had lodged an official protest over Mercedes’ dual-axis steering (DAS) system.
The system allows drivers to adjust the toe angle of the car by pushing or pulling the steering wheel. It was used by both Mercedes drivers on Friday. In the early hours of yesterday, race stewards threw out the protest, declaring DAS to be “a legitimate part of the steering system.”
Formula One yesterday was given a medical thumbs-up when organizers announced that everyone involved at this weekend’s grand prix had tested negative for the COVID-19 virus.
In a statement, the organizers said that 4,032 personnel had been tested from June 26 to Thursday without a single positive result.
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