Russell steals top spot from Antonelli in final Austria practice

Russell set a 1m07.096s in the closing two minutes of the session to deny Antonelli a clean sweep of practice, edging the Italian by just 0.038s after a difficult Friday.

Lewis Hamilton brought Ferrari back into the mix by finishing third, 0.115s off Russell, giving the Scuderia its first top-three result of the weekend.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished fourth and fifth for McLaren, while Max Verstappen ended the session sixth for Red Bull after briefly moving into second during the late qualifying simulations.

Charles Leclerc was seventh in the second Ferrari, with Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad completing the top 10.

With another hot day at the Red Bull Ring, the session began in 30 degree ambient heat and with the track temperature already at 48 degrees.

That made tyre preparation a key focus, particularly with teams expected to lean on the soft C5 compound for their final qualifying preparations.

The early running was slow, with Sergio Perez the first driver onto the road as Cadillac looked to make up for lost time after his electrical issues on Friday.

Perez started with a 1m11.437s on used mediums before improving to a 1m10.944s, although he also ran wide at Turn 1 as he continued to build back into the weekend.

Franco Colapinto and Nico Hulkenberg were among the first drivers to pick up the pace, with Hulkenberg moving to a 1m09.684s before Hadjar went faster on hard tyres.

Hadjar initially appeared comfortable in the Racing Bulls, reporting “The balance feels pretty nice” as he posted a 1m09.230s on the harder compound.

Norris then delivered the first representative soft-tyre lap of the session, putting McLaren on top with a 1m07.832s.

Hamilton moved within 0.345s after producing the best final sector at that stage, while Russell followed soon after but was half a second away from Norris’ early benchmark.

Piastri then joined the fight near the top, setting a purple first sector before completing a 1m07.881s to sit just 0.049s behind Norris.

Bottas had one of his early laps deleted for track limits, while Norris reported his left mirror was “completely broken” as he continued his run.

Antonelli then underlined his strong pace from Friday by moving to the top with a 1m07.533s, putting himself more than three tenths clear of Norris.

Verstappen also improved shortly after to move second, 0.271s behind Antonelli, before reporting interference in his radio headset.

The Aston Martins struggled near the bottom of the order throughout the session, with Fernando Alonso reporting a front-end issue while down the timesheets.

“I cannot turn the car, so there’s something wrong at the front,” Alonso said as he remained well adrift of the midfield pace.

Carlos Sainz also had a scruffy session for Williams, running off more than once through the final sector as he struggled with the front end of the car.

As the session moved into its final phase, several drivers returned to the track on fresh softs for their final qualifying simulations.

Verstappen was the first of the leading runners to improve, climbing back to second before Norris displaced him with his own late soft-tyre effort.

Hamilton then went faster than both of them to take second, 0.077s behind Antonelli, before Russell improved to third as Mercedes looked set for another strong session without quite topping it.

Piastri responded by moving up to fourth, 0.210s off Antonelli at the time, while Hadjar finally delivered his first proper soft-tyre run to climb into the top 10.

Bortoleto improved to 13th late on, ahead of Colapinto and Oliver Bearman, while Perez’s soft-tyre lap was only good enough for 19th.

The final runs then swung the session Russell’s way.

While Antonelli failed to improve on his last attempt and returned to the pits, Russell found enough time to produce a 1m07.096s and snatch top spot from his teammate at the end of the hour.

Leclerc also improved late but could only manage seventh, leaving the top seven covered by 0.356s heading into qualifying.

Hadjar continued to report braking concerns at Turn 3 in the closing moments, complaining the car was locking without much pressure on the pedal, despite improving to eighth.

Lawson finished ninth, 0.935s off the benchmark, with Lindblad 10th to complete a strong showing for the Red Bull-linked runners inside the top 10.

Gasly was 11th for Alpine, ahead of Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Colapinto and Bearman.

Esteban Ocon ended the session 16th from Sainz and Alex Albon, while Perez and Bottas were 19th and 20th for Cadillac.

Alonso and Lance Stroll completed the order for Aston Martin, both more than three seconds off the pace after a difficult final practice.

Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix gets underway at 4pm local time (12am AEST).

Results: Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, Free Practice 3