The two Mercedes drivers headed the first practice session in the 2018 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Valtteri Bottas on Friday.
Hamilton was quicker in the early part of the session on the supersoft tyres and he stayed on top even on the ultrasoft tyres to head FP1 at Red Bull Ring circuit with his best time of 1m04.839s.
Teammate Bottas (1m04.966s) was second as the German manufacturer showed its advantage, but not by much as Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen (1m05.072s) ended up third, only 0.106s behind Bottas – the Dutch survived a spin at Turn 4.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was fifth in a usual Friday run for the Italian manufacturer – the team made set-up changes in between the sessions with the German then able to complete some running in the last eight minutes.
Earlier in the session, Vettel had a scare when McLaren let Stoffel Vandoorne in his way in the pit lane with the German having to stop just inches behind Vandoorne for them to evade a contact – the incident is under investigation.
Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m05.483s) was fifth from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m05.776s) as the Finn undertook race simulation in only the first session of the weekend, presumably for a rain threat during the second session.
As in the recent races, Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m06.028s) was again the best of the rest in seventh with Force India’s Esteban Ocon (1m06.055s) behind him, followed by Sauber’s Charles Leclerc (1m06.215s) and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m06.394s) in the Top 10.
Gasly and Leclerc had a moment earlier in the session with the Frenchman complained of the Monegasque coming in his way on track. Meanwhile, Sauber’s solid run was further justified with Marcus Ericsson (1m06.400s) in 11th.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m06.404s) in 12th led the leading Renault of Carlos Sainz (1m06.427s) with the French manufacturer finally bringing the lighter MGU-K and other new bits to its power unit.
However, only the two Renault drivers and Vandoorne have the new MGU-K on their cars. Force India’s Sergio Perez (1m06.455s) was 14th ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m06.479s) with Williams’ Lance Stroll (1m06.567s) managing to beat both the McLarens.
Fernando Alonso (1m06.612s) was the leading McLaren in 17th ahead of Vandoorne (1m06.698s) – the Belgian was forced to change his nose after he broke his initial one when he went over the kerbs.
Toro Rosso Honda’s Brendon Hartley (1m06.871s) and Williams’ Robert Kubica (1m07.424s) completed the 20 drivers as the Polish driver got his second FP1 chance after Spain, replacing Sergey Sirotkin.
