Mercedes’ driver George Russell topped the timesheet in the opening practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula One Austrian Grand Prix, outpacing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and championship leading McLaren driver Oscar Piastri as Irish driver Alex Dunne impressed in the other Mclaren with fourth place on his first F1 outing. 

Fresh from his Canadian Grand Prix win, Russell led the way in the opening minutes of the session, posting a lap of 1:07.140 on Medium tyres. The Aston Martin pair of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso then moved ahead, with the Canadian almost three tenths ahead of his Spanish team-mate. 

Russell was soon back in charge, setting a new benchmark of 1:06.537, 0.316s ahead of Stroll, but this time on Hard tyres. Kimi Antonelli, in the other Mercedes then slotted into third place. 

Russell soon worked his way down to 1:06.139, while Verstappen, who was struggling with the baseline set-up of his RB21, briefly moved to P2 on Medium tyres. Antonelli went quicker, however, and his lap of 1:06.342 put him almost four tenths clear of the Dutchman, who was 0.009s ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. 

Elsewhere, as the first third of the session elapsed, Lewis Hamilton, down in P18, was called back to the pits after he was told that the team was seeing an issue with the Briton’s gearbox. 

On track, Carlos Sainz took his Williams to P2 with a Medium tyre lap of 1:06.071, two tenths behind Russell who had bolted on Soft and continued to improve. 

Others also made the switch to the C5 Soft tyres and championship leader Piastri made his first top three appearance of the session, taking P2 with a lap of 1:05.697. However, Verstappen was also now on the red-banded Soft tyre and the Dutchman went moved nine hundredths ahead of the Australian to take P2 on 1:05.607, 0.065s off Russell. 

Behind them, F2 championship leader Alex Dunne, who was being given a run in Lando Norris’ car and who had spent much of the session driving with large aero rakes on his car, jumped to fourth place with a strong lap of 1:05.766 on Soft tyres. That left the Irish driver 0.224s off Russell. 

Further back, the gearbox problems that had sidelined Hamilton was cured and with ten minutes to go the seven-time champion jumped from 20th on the timesheet to ninth with a Soft tyre time of 1:06.099, 0.557s adrift of former team-mate Russell. 

The session then gave way to longer running, predominantly on Medium tyres, leaving Russell with top spot ahead of Verstappen, Piastri and the impressive Dunne. Behind them, Gasly finished fifth ahead of Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, with Williams Alex Albon in seventh place ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz. Hamilton held on to ninth place at the flag with Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar in P10. 

The other reserve driver on show, Beganovic, ended up in P18, eight tenths off top spot and three behind Hamilton on a timesheet on which all 20 cars were covered by less than 1.2 seconds. 

2025 FIA Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:05.542 34 237.612
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:05.607 0.065 30 237.377
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:05.697 0.155 33 237.051
4 Alex Dunne McLaren/Mercedes 1:05.766 0.224 29 236.803
5 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:05.780 0.238 34 236.752
6 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:05.874 0.332 35 236.414
7 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:05.946 0.404 35 236.156
8 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:06.017 0.475 33 235.902
9 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:06.099 0.557 20 235.610
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:06.110 0.568 33 235.571
11 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:06.130 0.588 35 235.499
12 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:06.140 0.598 32 235.464
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:06.160 0.618 32 235.392
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:06.170 0.628 32 235.357
15 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:06.189 0.647 34 235.289
16 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:06.246 0.704 34 235.087
17 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:06.262 0.720 30 235.030
18 Dino Beganovic Ferrari 1:06.369 0.827 32 234.651
19 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:06.510 0.968 32 234.154
20 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:06.738 1.196 30