Red Bull’s Max Verstappen headed Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in second practice at the Styrian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman pipped Bottas by just 0.043 seconds, with the Racing Points of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll third and fourth.
Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo had a heavy crash at Turn Nine early in the session, and limped away from the car.
World champion Lewis Hamilton was only sixth, unhappy with both the balance of his Mercedes and his fastest lap.
Teams were trying harder than usual in the session as there is an outside chance of it defining the grid order if cars cannot run in the predicted rain on Saturday.
That is still an unlikely scenario, however, as there a number of potential solutions if qualifying is washed out.
Verstappen was impressive on both short and long runs, beating Bottas on his qualifying simulation lap, and then lapping at very similar pace when they switched to race preparation, despite being on the harder medium tyre with the Finn on the soft.
