Formula 1 world championship leader Kimi Antonelli has topped first practice at the Austrian Grand Prix, having a slight edge on team-mate George Russell on a toasty Red Bull Ring.
Russell led the opening running in Spielberg on mediums with a 1m10.407s and then 1m09.898s, ahead of team-mate Antonelli. The Italian teenager took over command with a 1m08.448s lap, but a better comparison came at the halfway point when both Mercedes men donned Pirelli’s softs. Antonelli set a 1m07.796s lap, 0.119s ahead of his team-mate, which would remain untouched until the end of the sweltering hot session in Styria.
Russell’s best effort got him to within 0.040s of Antonelli, as the Mercedes pair had a gap of almost one second to Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad at that stage, which was the result of other teams dialling in their upgrades or hitting reliability issues.
A hydraulic leak kept reigning world champion Lando Norris out of his McLaren MCL40 until the final 15 minutes of the session, the latest reliability gremlin to hit the Briton. Oscar Piastri did make it out earlier, initially struggling with his brakes before setting a 1m.07914s lap to go third, just 0.117s behind Antonelli’s chart topping effort.
Max Verstappen’s session was delayed by suspected clutch issues. Verstappen joined the action after 20 minutes on soft tyres, but said he was struggling with a lack of grip and feel in the heavily revised Red Bull RB22, which features a new floor, sidepod and various other upgrades. Eventually, the four-time world champion improved to go fourth, 0.281s behind Antonelli.
Barcelona winner Lewis Hamilton gradually chipped away at his personal bests to take fifth in the Ferrari, which featured an upgraded V6 engine, shipping six tenths to the Mercedes cars. That ended up bumping Lindblad to sixth, ahead of Norris who took seventh on the medium tyre without trying the faster softs in anger, while Franco Colapinto in the Alpine took eighth place.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
On a non-sprint weekend held on a traditional road course, the Austrian Grand Prix was an ideal opportunity for teams to use up one of their four mandatory rookie FP1 sessions. Aboard Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, Dino Beganovic was the fastest rookie runner in ninth, with Haas regular Oliver Bearman rounding out the top 10.
Ayumu Iwasa was 15th in Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls machine. Paul Aron also took part, the Estonian deputising for Gabriel Bortoleto in the Audi and claiming 17th. Luke Browning deputised for Carlos Sainz at Williams and was 18th-fastest, with Ryo Hirakawa 19th in Esteban Ocon’s Haas and Jak Crawford 20th as he replaced Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
The second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar was only 12th after suffering engine issues early on and once he did make it out, the Frenchman struggled with severe balance issues that left him off the pace.
The session almost took place without noteworthy incidents, until Sergio Perez ground to a halt at Turn 3 in the Cadillac with one minute of the session to go to effectively end the running early.
F1 Austrian GP – FP1 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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