George Russell was fastest in first practice for the Austrian Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver set a 05.542 to put himself six and a half hundredths ahead of Max Verstappen. Russell goes into the weekend with questions about his future as rumours continue that the Dutchman could join the team next season.
The Englishman will be hoping to build on his first win of the season with back-to-back wins at the Red Bull Ring, but he did report drops of rain towards the end of the session, but traffic prevented others from challenging the Ferrari.
Oscar Piastri was third just under a tenth behind Verstappen and seven hundredths ahead of Alex Dunne, the current. F2 championship leader replacing Lando Norris for the session and was not far off Piastri, though he did set his lap later in the session when the track would have been better.
Dunne is the first Irishman to take part in a race weekend in over twenty years, and showed decent pace. The Irishman was also the only driver to run the soft tyres during the initial runs, the rest of the pack bolting on the medium and hard compounds.
Pierre Gasly put his Alpine fifth. The Frenchman was a hundredth and a half behind the Irishman, as he went nearly a tenth faster than the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto.
McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull have brought upgrades this weekend. McLaren has new front suspension shaping that is aimed at working with a new front wing that was first tested at the last race in Canada. Red Bull have a new floor edge and Ferrari a new floor, their first upgrade since Bahrain.
Alex Albon put his Williams seven hundredths behind Bortoleto as he had the same margin over teammate Carlos Sainz. Lewis Hamilton was ninth going a hundredth faster than the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar, completing the though the seven-time champion did have a gearbox issue during the session.
The short 2.6-mile Red Bull Ring often produces some of the closest times of the season, the seven-time champion was around half a second off his former teammate. That makes it a key make-or-break weekends for the midfield as huge points can be picked up this weekend just before the halfway point in the season
While his Mercedes replacement, Kimi Antonelli, missed out on the top ten by a hundredth as he went two hundredths ahead of Nico Hulkenberg. Lance Stroll was a hundredth ahead of Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso, who survived a big spin and contact with the wall to go fourteenth.
Liam Lawson put his Racing Bull fifteenth, going just under six hundredths ahead of Franco Colapinto, while Yuki Tsunoda as a hundredth and a half further behind. Dino Beganovic put his Ferrari eighteenth, though it wasn’t a perfect session for the Swede, as he spent a lot of time in the garage with a problem.
The two Haas completed the field Esteban Ocon a quarter of a second ahead of teammate Ollie Bearman. Ocon sparked another yellow flag after locking up and going straight on at Lauda (Turn One). The Haas driver was able to rejoin, albeit with a flat spot on his front left tyre.
