In the Austrian hills, the track was alive with the sound of rookies and engine issues.
Before the first practice session of the weekend even begins, the McLaren of Lando Norris was forced to sit out of the session due to a potential hydraulic leak. And this curse seemed to spread as both Red Bulls of Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen were forced to initially sit in the pits due to engine issues in FP1 at the Austrian GP.
Rookies on Site
Elsewhere at the Red Bull Ring, many teams had rookies in their cars for a test drive this weekend.
Luke Browning – Williams (replacing Carlos Sainz)
Riyo Hirakawa – Haas (replacing Esteban Ocon)
Ayumu Iwasa – Racing Bulls (replacing Liam Lawson)
Paul Aron – Audi (replacing Gabriel Bortoleto)
Jak Crawford – Aston Martin (replacing Lance Stroll)
Dino Beganovic – Ferrari (replacing Charles Leclerc)
Getting the Laps In
Despite a few tilted mirrors here and there, the remaining drivers were able to get out on track to get their first long runs in on their Medium and Hard compound tyres. Whilst he did have a moment on the kerb at Turn 1, Kimi Antonelli was the man to beat after the first 25 minutes of the session.
After his first soft tyre runs, Verstappen sat in P3 at the halfway point of the session. Both the Mercedes sat in P1 and 2 after their long runs. Once the Silver Arrows got out on track with their fresh Soft tyres, they extended the gap to Verstappen by over a second.
With 20 minutes to go, Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bull climbed to P3 after his first stint on the Soft compounds.
And after 45 minutes, Norris was out on track for the first time this weekend. Following a few exploratory laps on the Medium tyres, Norris set his first laps on the board and put himself into 11th on the timing screens.
We might not know what the common reasoning is behind it, but it seems like the brakes are becoming a problem for many teams with Antonelli even complaining about issues despite sitting in P1 for the duration of the session.
Red Flag!
To tie the session up in an unfortunately fitting way, Sergio Perez – who had been complaining about connectivity issues with his car – stopped on track with power unit issues. With the Red Flag, the drivers were unable to get out on track for their practice starts.
The session ended with Kimi Antonelli, George Russell and Oscar Piastri taking the top three spots.
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