Kimi Antonelli led the F1 qualifying results storyline from first practice at the Austrian Grand Prix, putting Mercedes on top with George Russell second by 0.040s. That early pace came on Friday, before second practice and qualifying, while rivals lost time to car issues.
Antonelli sets the pace
Antonelli finished 0.040s clear of the field and headed a Mercedes one-two as Russell followed him home. Oscar Piastri was third, one tenth behind Antonelli, while Max Verstappen took fourth, 0.281s off the top.
The spread at the front was tight enough to reward clean running, and Mercedes got it. Lewis Hamilton was fifth, more than six tenths back, while Arvid Lindblad was sixth for Racing Bulls in first practice. Dino Beganovic, driving for Charles Leclerc, took ninth as the best rookie in the session.
Verstappen, Norris, Hadjar
Verstappen lost time twice in the pit lane inside the opening 20 minutes because of software problems, then said the whole car is shaking under braking. Lando Norris lost 45 minutes because of a hydraulics leak, and Isack Hadjar changed his engine after a late problem cost him around half of the session.
Those setbacks left Red Bull and McLaren with less running than Mercedes, and Karun Chandhok said the timing was especially awkward because Red Bull had brought a big update and wanted both cars out gathering data. He also noted that for Norris, the loss came early enough to leave two sessions to recover the laps.
Sergio Perez stops session
Sergio Perez caused the only red flag of the session when he stopped one minute before the chequered flag. It was another interruption in a session that already split clean pace from lost track time.
Second practice was scheduled for Friday at 4pm, and qualifying was set for Saturday at 3pm. Mercedes left first practice with the clearest benchmark of the weekend; the others still had time, but far less margin for error after a Friday that already shifted the workload.
