George Russell locked out Max Burstappen in the top spot of the opening practice session at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Russell set the early benchmark to 1M05.542, overturning Verstappen in just 0.065 seconds. The Mercedes driver enjoyed a candid session where he saw him acquire the top spot early on in hard tires before he integrated that position with a fresh soft set.
However, Verstappen seemed to have settled in the “strange” understeer early in his Red Bull when he committed a big lockup on the first turn of the medium on his opening set.
McLaren went on to move just 0.069 seconds ahead of Rookie Alex Dunn with Oscar Piastri 0.155 seconds off the pace and a fantastic replacement for Rand Norris in his car.
Dan, the title leader in Formula 2 and McLaren development driver, was given an evaluation program to start the time he was equipped with aero rakes to test new parts for the team, including front suspension changes.
However, the first Irishman from his country to take part in the Grand Prix Weekend since Ralph Farman in 2003 was allowed to release on a set of soft tires late. After putting his F2 practice to the top early in the day, he officially lost his F1 order in an impressive conclusion from the 19-year-old session, in his first attempt on a lightly used set of soft tires.
Dan proved right at pace with McLaren’s one-off run. Joe Portlock/Getty Images
Pierre Guthrie was fifth in the Alpine, with the Frenchman 0.234 seconds from the pace, looking at Gabriel Boltreto and Williams’ teammates Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Lewis Hamilton was more than half a second away from the pace at the end of a confused session that spent quite a bit of time in the garage. Britton was recalled early in time with a gearbox issue and sent late to complete a performance run on the soft that let him 0.557 seconds off the pace before returning to the pit lane.
Hamilton, who began a session equipped with an Aero Lake to evaluate the new Ferrari floor, finished the session with 20 laps complete with the fewest drivers in the session.
Isack Hadjar completed the top 10, 0.568 seconds from the pace with his new front wing in his racing bulls car.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was 0.588 seconds slower than her session’s top teammate after complaining of a fight with Frontlock early in the day and later a traffic jam.
Nico Halkenberg was 12th in Sauber ahead of Aston Martin teammates Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.
Liam Lawson was 15th in the Race Bulls ahead of Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tunoda.
Dino spent most of the hour controlling Charles Leclerc’s car and what looked like a test program as part of the ongoing development of the Ferrari SF-25. The 21-year-old Swede, who is 10th in this year’s Formula 2 Championship, spent quite a bit of time in his garage and accumulated over 30 laps despite turning off the new floor due to private issues. He finished 0.827 seconds off the pace, but is 0.27 seconds slower than his sister car Hamilton.
Haas teammates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman locked out the bottom of the 1.196 seconds from a pace of 0.968 seconds and 1.196 seconds, respectively.
