Lewis Hamilton tops practice as Mercedes dominate

Lewis Hamilton

World championship leader Lewis Hamilton expects to have a fight on his hands this weekend, as he bids to extend his Mercedes team's unbeaten run at the Red Bull Ring race track with victory in the Austrian Grand Prix.

The German marque have won every race around the 4.3-kilometer long circuit, nestled amidst the lush alpine meadows of Austria's Styrian Mountains, since it returned to the calendar in 2014. But with relative form between teams varying almost on a race-by-race basis, Hamilton knows all bets are off this year. "It doesn't really make any difference coming into this weekend," Hamilton, 33, who won last week in France and regained the championship lead from Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel in the fourth such swap at the top of the tables this year.

"Because it's a new year, we're all so much closer, it's a short circuit, everything's going to be closer than ever before, everyone's got some sort of upgrades and I anticipate it being one of the closest qualifying sessions we've had this season." Still, Hamilton made the best possible start to the weekend, topping both of yesterday's practice sessions in a Mercedes one-two ahead of Valtteri Bottas. While the Finn was just 0.176 seconds slower than his team-mate, Vettel, the fastest-non Mercedes car in third was 0.236 seconds off the pace.

That is a formidable gap for such a short track, all the more so given Hamilton set his benchmark on the less grippy soft tyre compared to the far stickier ultra-softs for the German. Nevertheless, Vettel tends to build up speed as the weekend progresses and the gap could be a lot closer come qualifying and the race. The 30-year-old, who like Hamilton has won three races this year, is also keen to make up for the mistake last week in France that cost him the championship lead. "I've had a lot of races," Vettel had told reporters on Thursday. "It happens, unfortunately, at times. I try to minimise it, but I'm not worried."

While wary of the threat posed by Ferrari and Red Bull, Hamilton could also need to keep an eye on Bottas across the Mercedes garage. Of Mercedes' four successive wins in Austria, only one has come courtesy of Hamilton. But the track has been kind to Bottas. The 28-year-old claimed his first F1 podium there in 2014 while driving for Williams. He also won the race last year, during his first season for champions Mercedes. But the Finn has endured more than his fair share of misfortune this season that has cost him two wins and, most recently, at least a third place finish a week ago in France where Vettel collided with him at the start. The Red Bull Ring could, therefore, be the ideal venue at which to mark a change in fortunes. "I just like the track," said Bottas. "I can't say particular points why it would be a good track for me. I just like it, enjoyable to drive. "Hopefully this year we can be strong as a team like we were last year."

Red Bull will also be particularly determined to take the fight to Mercedes in what is a home race for the team owned by the Austrian energy drinks company hosted at a track that is also owned by them. The team's Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, celebrating his 29th birthday on Sunday, is eyeing at the very least a podium finish. "I think this year in general we've had good pace on pretty much all layouts we've been to … so we've been there, if not on the podium, then close to it "In 2016 Max (Verstappen) got a podium here, '17 I did, so hopefully for the fans both of us can manage to get on there on Sunday."

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