Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have missed the start of final practice at the Austrian Grand Prix following their high-speed crashes in qualifying. Both Mercedes drivers hit the barriers in the closing stages of Q3, with Hamilton sliding off at Turn 7 and Russell losing control at Turn 10. The damage across the two machines was so significant that team boss Toto Wolff compared the situation to "somebody dropping a Lego car on the floor". Ahead of final practice, Mercedes provided an update on the repairs, sharing more details on what's been changed.
What's changed on Hamilton and Russell's cars?
Due to strict curfew measures, Mercedes had a total of six hours from the end of qualifying to the start of FP2 to make changes, with limited spares also causing a headache. Hamilton has taken on a spare chassis due to the damage sustained, and he and Russell are running different gearboxes from Friday's running – within their permitted pool. Mercedes have repaired or swapped the floors and wings on both cars, while the power units have been checked and nothing replaced. If the final tweaks go smoothly, Mercedes hope to hit the track midway through the one-hour FP2 session.
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