Antonelli edges Russell in Mercedes 1-2 as Norris sits out most of Austrian GP FP1

Kimi Antonelli topped first practice at the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday, leading a Mercedes 1-2 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg as championship rival Lando Norris lost most of the session to a hydraulic leak in his McLaren MCL40.

Antonelli set the benchmark with a 1m07.796s lap on Pirelli softs, edging team-mate George Russell by just 0.040s. Russell had led the early running on mediums before both drivers switched to the softer compound at the halfway point of the sweltering session in Styria. The gap from the Mercedes pair to the rest of the field was close to a second at that stage, with Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad sitting third before being bumped to sixth by the end of the hour.

Oscar Piastri salvaged third for McLaren with a 1m07.914s lap — just 0.117s behind Antonelli — after working through early brake issues. Norris, by contrast, did not join the session until the final 15 minutes due to the hydraulic problem, the latest in a string of reliability setbacks for the reigning world champion. He ended up seventh, having only run on mediums without a meaningful soft-tyre effort.

Max Verstappen’s session was also disrupted, with suspected clutch issues delaying his Red Bull RB22 debut on track by around 20 minutes. The heavily revised car — featuring a new floor, sidepod and various other upgrades — left Verstappen reporting a lack of grip and feel, though he eventually recovered to go fourth, 0.281s off Antonelli’s pace.

Lewis Hamilton took fifth for Ferrari, gradually improving throughout the session in a car fitted with an upgraded V6 engine, finishing six tenths adrift of the Mercedes. Franco Colapinto was eighth in the Alpine.

With the Austrian Grand Prix a non-sprint weekend on a traditional circuit layout, teams took the opportunity to run mandatory rookie drivers in one of their four allocated FP1 slots. Dino Beganovic was the fastest of the rookies in ninth, driving Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, while Haas regular Oliver Bearman rounded out the top 10. Ayumu Iwasa took 15th in Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls, Paul Aron claimed 17th deputising for Gabriel Bortoleto in the Audi, Luke Browning was 18th in Carlos Sainz’s Williams, and Ryo Hirakawa 19th in Esteban Ocon’s car.