Daniel Ricciardo was twice fifth-fastest on an incident-filled day of practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of reeling in Sebastian Vettel with victory suffered a blow as the Mercedes driver was hit with a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
The Briton had topped the timesheets in both practice sessions as he looked to set about closing a 14-point gap on Vettel in the Formula One world drivers’ championship standings.
Hamilton was 0.147 seconds faster than Vettel’s Ferrari in the afternoon on Friday, having been 0.19 ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in the morning.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix winner Ricciardo was 0.39 seconds off in the second session and 0.645 back in the morning.
After declaring his happiness with his running, Hamilton will now face a battle to finish ahead of the Ferrari as he will drop five places from where he qualifies on Saturday.
The Spielberg track, nestled amid rolling hills and forests under the imposing Styrian Alps, was slippery and caused problems on turns one, six and seven.
Verstappen, fourth fastest in P2, said his tyres were “all over the place” in the afternoon.
Ricciardo injected some Australian humour into the build-up when he jokingly told Sky Sports television, while struggling to keep a straight face, that his win in Baku had changed everything.
“I always said I want to win five races and retire so I’m probably not going to compete this weekend,” he smiled. “I think I’m done. So it’s changed pretty dramatically my position in the sport.”
He then reassured “people at home who don’t understand my silly sense of humour” not to worry.
More seriously, Ricciardo said he was confident heading into the weekend after getting his first look at the Spielberg circuit.
“It was another good Friday today and we seemed to be relatively competitive,” he said.
“I didn’t really get to do a proper long run at the end because we had a couple of issues but otherwise it was a smooth day. The surface of the circuit has a lot of grip this year and with the new cars you really feel it.
“The top five cars were within four-tenths so hopefully that remains for tomorrow and then it’ll be quite an exciting show for the weekend. I’m sure Mercedes will probably turn it up for qualifying but I hope we can stay in that fight.”
