2026 Austrian GP FP3: Mercedes complete dominant practice

George Russell delivered Mercedes a third consecutive fastest practice time of the weekend by narrowly beating team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the final session before qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, as the Silver Arrows continued to set the pace at the Red Bull Ring.

After Antonelli topped both Friday sessions, Russell produced a late improvement to deny the leader of the 2026 F1 World Championship a clean sweep of practice, posting a best lap of 1m07.096s to finish just 0.038s ahead of the Italian. Lewis Hamilton placed third for Ferrari, 0.115s off the benchmark, while McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris rounded out the top five.

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The final hour of preparation began at 12:30 local time in hot conditions, with air temperatures already reaching 31°C as teams completed their final qualifying simulations and race preparation ahead of Saturday afternoon’s crucial grid-deciding session.

2026 Austrian Grand Prix FP3 Results

2026 Austrian Grand Prix FP3, 27 June 2026

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time / Gap	Laps
1	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:07.096	19
2	12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+0.038s	17
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+0.115s	22
4	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+0.248s	17
5	1	Lando Norris	McLaren	+0.264s	20
6	3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	+0.273s	16
7	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+0.356s	24
8	6	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull Racing	+0.816s	27
9	30	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+0.935s	21
10	41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+1.013s	24
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+1.097s	16
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+1.207s	22
13	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	+1.215s	22
14	43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+1.298s	18
15	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	+1.433s	19
16	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	+1.611s	15
17	55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+1.747s	27
18	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	+1.896s	25
19	11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	+2.436s	29
20	77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+2.644s	24
21	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+3.325s	21
22	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+3.471s	19

Sergio Perez was the first driver to venture onto the circuit, the Cadillac racer eager to make up for lost mileage after reliability problems for both himself and team-mate Valtteri Bottas severely limited their running during Friday’s second practice.

The opening stages were relatively quiet, with Perez circulating alone before other drivers gradually joined him around 10 minutes into the session. As more cars headed onto the Red Bull Ring, teams explored different tyre compounds during their initial runs, although the majority opted to begin on the soft Pirelli tyres.

Lando Norris was the first of the frontrunners to establish a competitive benchmark, the McLaren driver recording a 1m07.832s after 20 minutes to move to the top of the timing screens.

It was not an entirely straightforward run for the Briton, however. Shortly afterwards, Norris was informed by his engineer that his left-hand mirror was “completely broken”, forcing him back to the pits to address the issue before continuing his programme.

Oscar Piastri briefly slotted into second place behind his McLaren team-mate, but both drivers were soon displaced as Antonelli continued his impressive weekend form. The Mercedes driver immediately found almost three tenths over Norris to reclaim the top spot.

Max Verstappen was the last driver to leave the garage and wasted little time moving into second position. The Red Bull driver, however, reported another technical irritation over team radio, complaining of “constant weird interference” before requesting a change of earplugs.

By the halfway stage of the session, Antonelli remained comfortably quickest with a 1m07.533s. Charles Leclerc had climbed to second for Ferrari, while Russell occupied third after his opening representative laps.

Further back, Williams endured a frustrating session. Carlos Sainz, running down in 18th position, was shown a black-and-white warning flag for driving unnecessarily slowly before encountering more trouble later in the session.

Russell subsequently improved to second place, but Antonelli responded immediately by lowering the benchmark once more with a 1m07.134s, extending his advantage over his Mercedes team-mate to just over four tenths of a second.

Red Bull appeared to divide its programme between its two drivers, with Isack Hadjar spending an extended period evaluating the hard compound tyres while Verstappen continued gathering data on the softs. Sainz’s difficult morning also continued when the Spaniard slid off the circuit at the final corner as track temperatures continued to rise.

Attention then turned to the decisive qualifying simulation runs, with the frontrunners fitting fresh sets of soft tyres for one final push. Hamilton looked capable of challenging after setting the fastest opening sector, but the Ferrari driver ultimately crossed the line 0.077s short of Antonelli’s leading time. Team-mate Leclerc, meanwhile, locked a front tyre under braking into Turn 3, costing him valuable time.

Although Antonelli was unable to improve on his earlier benchmark, Russell produced a superb final effort to snatch top spot with a lap of 1m07.096s, just 0.038s quicker than the championship leader.

Hamilton ended the session third, only 0.115s behind Russell, with Piastri and Norris taking fourth and fifth, respectively, for McLaren after another encouraging showing from the Woking squad.

Verstappen finished sixth despite another session interrupted by technical niggles, while Leclerc, Isack Hadjar and Racing Bulls team-mates Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10.

Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out on the top 10 in 11th for Alpine, ahead of Audi pair Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Haas duo Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon.

Three sets of teammates filled the remaining positions. Williams drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon finished 17th and 18th, respectively. Cadillac pair Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas ended up 19th and 20th after another difficult session, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll brought up the rear in 21st and 22nd.