Russell fastest in Austria FP1 as Ferrari hits trouble

The Mercedes driver was the first to set a time on soft tyres and the first to dip into the 1m05s, setting a benchmark of 1:05.542.

Just as he was two weeks ago in Canada, Max Verstappen was second behind Russell, finishing just 0.065s adrift of the British driver.

Verstappen, who is without regular race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase this weekend due to personal reasons, complained that his car felt “weird” throughout the session but pushed through the issues to narrowly miss out on top spot at his team’s home circuit.

McLaren were less than three tenths behind the top two, with Oscar Piastri in third and the impressive Alex Dunne in fourth.

Dunne, the first Irish driver to appear in an F1 weekend since Ralph Firman in 2003, took over Lando Norris’s McLaren to help the team fulfil one of its four mandatory rookie session slots for 2025.

He said he was over the moon with his first ever taste of an F1 car on a Grand Prix weekend.

“I want to thank everyone… this is the best day of my life,” Dunne said over team radio after the session.

His fourth place came just hours after he set the fastest time in Formula 2’s FP1.

Ferrari also ran a rookie in FP1, with Dino Beganovic taking over Charles Leclerc’s car.

However, it wasn’t an ideal session for the Swedish driver, who spent most of FP1 in the garage as Ferrari addressed an undisclosed issue. He managed only the 18th-best time.

His teammate Lewis Hamilton didn’t fare much better, with Ferrari reporting a gearbox issue that kept him in the garage for a large portion of the session.

Hamilton was eventually able to return to the track and set the ninth-fastest time after repairs were made.

Pierre Gasly and Gabriel Bortoleto had impressive runs to finish fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of the Williams pair of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

Isack Hadjar rounded out the top ten for Racing Bulls, with teammate Liam Lawson down in 15th.

Light rain fell in the final minutes of the session, which was dominated by teams experimenting with ride heights to test different downforce levels. Both Ferrari and McLaren also fitted aero rakes early on to gather data on new components.

Ferrari debuted an updated floor for Austria, while McLaren continued testing the new front wing briefly trialled in Canada.

Early running focused on hard and medium compounds, before a switch to softs in the closing stages.

FP2 at the Red Bull Ring gets underway at 5pm local time (1am AEST).