Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Max Verstappen tops the timesheets in Austria

Max Verstappen finished fastest in practice (Christian Bruna/AP)
Max Verstappen finished fastest in practice (Christian Bruna/AP)

Max Verstappen overcame an engine failure to put his Red Bull at the top of the time charts in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Prior to qualifying at the Red Bull Ring later on Friday, Verstappen finished 0.276 seconds clear of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari.

Lando Norris set the quickest opening sector before running through the gravel to scupper his sole hot lap.

Lewis Hamilton, who did not set a time on the speediest soft tyres, finished fifth, half-a-second back, with Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who aborted his best lap on the quickest rubber, eighth.

Verstappen, who has won seven of the 10 rounds so far, suffered a brief setback when he broke down with an apparent engine failure midway through the one-hour session.

The Dutch driver was forced to park up on the main straight as the session was red-flagged.

Verstappen’s mechanics quickly wheeled their driver back to the garage, and a quick fix allowed him to return to the track as soon as the running re-started.

Lewis Hamilton finished fifth in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton finished fifth in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix (Darko Bandic/AP)

Verstappen had been only third behind Hamilton and Russell, but a switch to the soft rubber elevated him to the top of the standings, and he appears the man to beat heading into qualifying at 16:30 local time (15:30 BST).

Norris occupies second in the championship standings, and McLaren are expected to go well here at a venue where the British driver has excelled in the past.

Norris was nearly a tenth up on Verstappen only to run wide at the fourth corner, forcing him to settle for 13th.