Lewis Hamilton started F1 Austrian GP with the quickest time in first free practice session but Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was close on the harder tyres.
Most drivers had off moments with Turn 4 sausage kerb catching up many which resulted in wing and floor damage to certain drivers. Hamilton led F1 Austrian GP FP1 session at Red Bull Ring with a 1m04.838s time on the soft compound with Vettel (1m04.982s) in second.
The interesting difference was Vettel only 0.144s off on the medium compound as he split the two Mercedes drivers with Valtteri Bottas (1m04.999s) having to revert to the Spec 1 engine ahead of the start of the session due to an oil leak in Spec 2.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (1m05.141s) was fourth – also on the medium compound, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen (1m05.260s) and Pierre Gasly (1m05.378s) in fifth and sixth respectively as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz (1m05.502s) ended up as best of rest.
The Spaniard is to start from the back of the grid along with Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon with a new engine. Behind Sainz was Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m05.846s) with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m05.876s) ninth and McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m06.125s) 10th.
Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m06.135s) slotted in 11th with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat (1m06.272s) and Albon (1m06.285s) 12th and 13th to be ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m06.283s), who caused a session-ending red flag.
The German went wide on the final corner which broke half of his front wing. The session re-started but only for practice starts. The Racing Point and Alfa Romeo Racing followed behind Hulkenberg with Sergio Perez (1m06.457s) in 15th.
It was Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi (1m06.708s) in 16th ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (1m06.729s), with Lance Stroll (1m06.756s) in 17th after his off moment. Williams’ were at the back with George Russell (1m06.805s) in 19th and Robert Kubica (1m07.665s) 20th.
