#AustrianGP #FP1: @GeorgeRussell63 quickest ahead of @Max33Verstappen, @OscarPiastri. #F1

Russell Austrian GP FP1 – Mercedes’ George Russell topped the opening practice session at the Austrian GP ahead of reigning world champion Max Verstappen who was second for Red Bull whilst championship leader Oscar Piastri completed the top three for McLaren.

Russell, the winner of the Canadian Grand Prix last time out, posted the session-topping benchmark of a 1:05.542 on the C5 red side-walled softer compounds and was a slim 0.065 seconds clear of Verstappen whilst Piastri was a further 0.155 seconds off in third.

Sir Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to lead the pack out with a heap of aerodynamic rakes on his Ferrari SF-25 racer and emerged on a set of the C4 yellow-marked medium compound.

Hamilton was the first to register a 1:17.213 before quickly beaten ousted by Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s 1:08.309 and that was beaten by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who posted a 1:07.830.

Williams’ Alexander Albon slotted into second with his 1:08.235 flyer to be in-front of Antonelli.

Mercedes’ George Russell on the harder compounds jumped to P1 with a 1:07.140 as Williams’ Carlos Sainz moved into second and 0.242 seconds adrift as the hour-long session reached the seventh-minute mark.

Stroll claimed P1 with a 1:06.853 on his mediums as Alonso on the hards went into second and 0.219 seconds off his Canadian team-mate.

Albon slotted into fourth and ahead of team-mate Sainz with his 1:07.312 effort.

Antonelli jumped into third on his next hot-lap as his team-mate Russell moved back into P1 with his 1:06.537 flying lap to be 0.316 seconds clear of Stroll.

Alonso and Gasly moved into fourth and fifth respectively in the order and were 0.535 and 0.574 seconds off of Russell’s benchmark.

Replays showed Verstappen suffered a lock-up into turn one and had to abandon his flyer as the Dutchman sat 12^th in the early stage of proceedings in the tenth minute-mark.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri put his McLaren fifth as Verstappen then moved up into second to be 0.186 seconds off of Russell’s session-topper at this period of FP1.

Antonelli then moved into second place and 0.203 seconds behind team-mate Russell as the latter improved with a 1:06.139 flying tour.

Replays showed Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda suffer a lock-up into turn one with 43 minutes left on the clock as several drivers complained of braking issues.

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto on his C3 harder tyre blasted to third place with a 1:06.644 but was rapidly beaten by Sainz and then Verstappen’s 1:06.489 as the latter took third off the duo.

The majority of drivers came in with 38 minutes remaining leaving a brief lull in action as they began adjusting their setups before they headed out again.

Sainz then shot to the head of the times with his 1:06.017 on his set of the C5 mediums as both Silver Arrows of Russell and Antonelli came out on the softer tyres.

Hamilton was told by his team to box after Riccardo Adami reported a gearbox issue of the Briton’s SF-25 entry whilst Dino Beganovic deputising of Charles Leclerc in opening practice was stuck in the pits also as the team worked deep into the SF-25 after finding an issue.

Russell then snatched back P1 with a 1:05.776 to go 0.241 seconds clear of Sainz whilst Antonelli improved to third to be 0.356 off his leading team-mate as Piastri jumped to fourth.

With almost half an hour left in the session, all drivers were in their respective garages as they made more adjustments to their setups and were putting on a set of the softer compounds.

Bortoleto then jumped to second to be 0.373 seconds adrift of Russell’s benchmark whilst his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg slotted into fifth and behind Antonelli with his flyer on the C5’s.

The yellow flags were waved briefly as Alonso suffered a spin out the final corner with 28 minutes remaining, as replays showed the double world champion pirouette out of turn ten, but his AMR25 managed to avoid hitting the wall and continued on.

Gasly then pushed A525 entry to P2 to be 0.238 seconds off Russell’s leading effort of 1:05.542 with 26 minutes left on the clock.

RB’s Isack Hadjar then moved up into fifth place by two hundredths over Antonelli’s Silver Arrow.

Piastri on his soft tyre stint jumped into P2 with his 1:05.697 effort and was 0.155 seconds off leader Russell.

Verstappen with two personal best opening sectors and a purple slotted into second place in the classification with 1:05.607 and was a narrow 0.065 adrift of Russell as Albon took sixth in the order.

Another yellow flag was briefly waved with 19 minutes remaining as Haas’s Esteban Ocon suffered a lock-up into the opening corner.

Rookie and F2 driver Alex Dunne filling in for Lando Norris in FP1, then pushed the MCL39 on his softs up into fourth to be 0.224 seconds off Russell’s effort and behind team-mate for the session in Piastri.

As the opening 60-minute session reached the final 17 minutes, the majority were back into the pits as they fine-tuned their setups and put in more fuel for long race run data gathering before re-emerging on track as they bolted on a mix of softs, mediums and harder compounds.

Hulkenberg, Alonso, Colapinto and Tsunoda were the only drivers running the harder tyre at this stage of proceedings whilst the majority were on a range of softs and mediums.

With ten minutes remaining, Russell reported drops of rain falling at the Red Bull Ring as Hamilton moved up into ninth on his set of the C5’s.

With eight minutes left in the session, Piastri also reported light drops of rain at turns three and four, to which his race engineer responded that they would only be light.

The classification ended unchanged with Russell on top with Verstappen second as Piastri rounded out the top three.

The McLaren reserve Dunne (in-place of Norris for FP1) took an impressive fourth and in-front of Gasly who placed fifth and Bortoleto who was a solid sixth for Sauber.

The two Williams FW47’s of Albon and Sainz followed in seventh and eighth respectively as Hamilton and Hadjar completed the top ten runners.

You can see the full Formula 1 MSC Cruises Austrian Grand Prix 2025 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1264/austria/practice/1

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