Kimi Antonelli heads Mercedes 1-2 as Red Bull, Lando Norris hit trouble in F1 Austrian GP first practice

Andrea Kimi Antonelli headed Mercedes team-mate George Russell for a Silver Arrows 1-2 as several Formula 1 rivals hit trouble in opening practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. 

Antonelli, who retired late on in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix last time out, was just 0.040 seconds quicker than Russell, with Oscar Piastri only 0.117s off the pace for McLaren as he took third. 

Max Verstappen was fourth-fastest and 0.281s behind Antonelli in his upgraded Red Bull, which features a total of seven new parts for the team’s home race at Spielberg. 

2026 F1 Austrian Grand Prix - Friday Practice Results

The four-time world champion twice stopped in the pit lane and lost early running due to software glitches on his RB22. Meanwhile, team-mate Isack Hadjar was stuck in the garage for half an hour as Red Bull fixed a problem with his power unit. 

Reliability woes also struck reigning world champion Lando Norris, who suffered an early set-back to his weekend after McLaren encountered a hydraulic leak on his MCL40, which kept him garage-bound for 45 minutes. 

Fresh from claiming his first victory with Ferrari, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton placed fifth-fastest, 0.665s off the pace. F1 rookie Arvid Lindblad took sixth for Racing Bulls, ahead of Norris and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.

Dino Beganovic ended up as the fastest of the six rookie drivers to take part in FP1 as he deputised for Charles Leclerc. 

Beganovic was ninth quickest - just six tenths behind Hamilton in the other Ferrari - and ahead of Ollie Bearman, who completed the top-10 for Haas. 

Sergio Perez caused a late red flag in the closing minutes of the first hour of running when his Cadillac suddenly broke down on the run up the hill to Turn 3.

With Perez coming to a halt, drivers did not have an opportunity to conduct practice starts on the grid at the end of the session like normal.