Max Verstappen set the pace in second practice at the Styrian Grand Prix after title rival Lewis Hamilton had a quicker lap deleted.
Hamilton had set the fastest lap of the session by 0.077 seconds from Verstappen’s Red Bull but ran fractionally wide at the final corner.
That left Hamilton with fourth fastest time, behind McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
And in an unprecedented incident, Valtteri Bottas spun in the pit lane.
The Finn was leaving the pits on a fresh set of hard tyres to start a race-simulation run, but lost his Mercedes as he floored the throttle over some painted areas in the pit lane.
Bottas ended up broadside across the pit lane in front of the McLaren garage, and the McLaren sporting director complained that the incident was “absolutely ridiculous” and saying that he “could have taken out our guys there”.
Bottas, who ended the session 12th fastest after following a different run plan to Hamilton, will be investigated by stewards after the session.
The fastest times set by Hamilton and Verstappen – albeit that the world champion’s was deleted – suggested the title contenders are set for another close weekend.
Verstappen leads Hamilton by 12 points after his victory in France last weekend.
Behind Hamilton, the second Alpine of Fernando Alonso was fifth, 0.037secs behind team-mate Ocon, followed by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, McLaren’s Lando Norris, the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
The session started under the threat of rain but although there were a few drops early on it stayed dry throughout.
Nicholas Latifi had a spin at Turn Six in his Williams, while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz lost his car at Turn Four.
Hamilton and Verstappen also ran wide in the early slightly damp period of the session, Hamilton at Turn One and Verstappen at Turn Three.
Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly missed the entire session after a problem was found with his Honda power unit, which needed to be changed.
This is the first of two consecutive races at Austria’s Red Bull Ring.
The second event was needed following a calendar reshuffle when the Turkish Grand Prix, which had been added to the calendar to replace Canada, was dropped as a result of Turkey being added to the UK government’s red list of restricted countries.
Ironically, shortly before practice started in Austria on Friday it was announced that Turkey had been added to the calendar for the second time, this time in place of the Singapore Grand Prix on 1-3 October. Singapore was cancelled earlier this month as a result of travel restrictions there.