@LewisHamilton quickest in FP1 as #Vettel splits the @MercedesAMGF1. #AustrianGP #F1

Lewis Hamilton finished on top of the time-sheets in opening practice at the Austrian Grand Prix as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel splits the Mercedes.

Championship leader Hamilton set the benchmark of a 1:04.838 on his second run using the red-marked C4 soft compounds and was 0.144 seconds quicker than Vettel while the former’s team-mate ended the session in third and only 0.017 seconds adrift of the second-placed Ferrari.

Charles Leclerc was fourth in the other Ferrari SF90 racer as the Scuderia continued evaluating development parts to establish why some upgrades, which were introduced last weekend in France did not work as expected,

None of the top four drivers did early running at the Red Bull Ring, as Max Verstappen took to the team’s home Grand Prix by setting the early benchmark initially on the yellow side-walled medium compounds.

The Dutchman switched times with Hamilton at the front before Leclerc moved to the top running fresh mediums,

Leclerc’s 1.05.409 was a tenth faster than Verstappen’s best effort, before Bottas jumped to the top of the pile with a 1:05.299 using a fresh set of softs.

The Finn improved his time to a 1:04.999 but failed to lower his effort after that due to a couple of lock-ups and reporting braking issues over the radio.

Bottas had a delayed start to opening practice as the Brackley-based outfit found an oil leak before the session began, which forced the Finn to run an old-spec engine.

As he could not improve, Hamilton moved ahead after several laps that almost became the new quickest time but was not to be.

Vettel came out on a fresh set of mediums with 20 minutes remaining to take second behind the Briton.

Verstappen dropped to fifth and was 0.422 adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark with the Dutchman looking threatening to snatch the fastest time of the session after setting the best middle sector of everyone in his Honda-powered RB15 racer but could not improve.

Red Bull Racing team-mate Pierre Gasly finished the morning in sixth and ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz who was best of the rest in seventh and running an upgraded Renault power-train.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was eighth and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who was ninth and McLaren’s Lando Norris who completed the top ten.

A red flag was brought out with three minutes remaining to clear the debris from Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who ran wide exiting the penultimate corner and broke his front wing over the sausage kerbs on the run-off line.

He rejoined the circuit via the grass at the final corner and damaged more of his R.S.19 racer, scattering the track with chunks of debris.

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean was 11th on the time-sheets and ahead of the Toro Rosso duo Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon who were 12th and 13th respectively.

The aforementioned Hulkenberg took 14th and in-front of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who ended FP1 15th and the two Alfa Romeo Racing C38’s of Antonio Giovinazzi who were 16th and 17th.

The other Racing Point of Lance Stroll was 18th and ahead of the two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica who brought up the rear.