Sainz leads Ferrari's double in TL2 in Austria

Carlos Sainz led the second and final practice session at the F1 Austrian Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.

In the final practice session before the second F1 short-race event of the season in Austria, the Spaniard maintained his strong form after winning the British Grand Prix to beat Leclerc by just 0s050 with the soft compound tire.

World championship leader Max Verstappen, who will start Saturday afternoon's short 24-lap race from pole position after leading Friday qualifying, was third fastest.

In contrast to the Ferrari duo, Verstappen recorded his best time on medium tires, finishing 0s168 off Sainz's benchmark pace in what is ultimately a fairly meaningless session.

Fernando Alonso outpaced Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon in fourth, while Red Bull's Sergio Perez was more than half a second behind in sixth place. The Mexican qualified fourth, but will drop to P13 on the grid after having all his lap times in Q3 excluded for exceeding track limits.

A Herculean effort by Mercedes mechanics ensured that the cars of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were repaired and able to participate in the one-hour session following their accidents in qualifying.

Russell finished 0s6 off the pace in seventh, ahead of Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas and teammate Hamilton, who participated in the final 14 minutes of TL2 after Mercedes changed their chassis following their heavy crash in Q3.

Behind the Mercedes duo, Lando Norris completed the top 10 in TL2 for McLaren. The short race starts at 11:30 a.m. ET, with Verstappen sharing the front row with his main championship rival, Leclerc.

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