Practice session takes toll on field

VALTTERI Bottas and Max Verstappen crashed in an accident-strewn Austrian F1 Grand Prix practice on Friday with Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo admitting he also endured a tough day in his Renault.

Bottas was sent to the medical centre as a precaution after smashing head-on into the barriers at the downhill turn six, with his badly damaged Mercedes brought back to the pits on a truck.

The incident on a gusty day at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, brought out red flags for the second time in an errorstrewn afternoon session, with last year’s race winner Verstappen also caught out.

His Red Bull slammed backwards into the tyre wall at turn 10, breaking the rear suspension.

The first session had ended three minutes early after Ricciardo’s Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg ran over the kerb at the penultimate corner and ripped off half of his car’s front wing, scattering debris across the track.

Ricciardo had put in the eighth best time of that session with 1 min 05.846secs, but he was placed 17th on Free Practice 2 with a best of 1:06.418 from his 30 laps.

“It was difficult for us out there today, especially with our pace where we struggled to match others around us,” Ricciardo told the Renault website. “As the track improved, we couldn’t seem to improve with it.

“We have a bit of homework to do. Both cars were off the pace, so we’ll try and figure it out and find a solution together.

“The wind did seem to affect a lot of people today. It certainly affected the car and it was tricky out there.

“We’ll look into everything and see what we can improve.”