Lewis Hamilton Off the Pace as Mercedes Dominate Practice at Austrian GP
Antonelli led George Russell by 0.040 seconds as McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari all faced early-session reliability problems.
- On Friday, Formula One championship leader Kimi Antonelli set the fastest time in first practice for the Austrian Grand Prix, with Mercedes teammate George Russell finishing just 0.040 seconds behind in Spielberg.
- Seven-Time world champion Lewis Hamilton arrives following his maiden Ferrari victory at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, trailing Antonelli by 41 points as the Italian has won five of seven races this season.
- Red Bull struggled at their home circuit as four-time world champion Max Verstappen reported "the whole car is shaking under braking," while McLaren's reigning world champion Lando Norris remained sidelined for 45 minutes with hydraulic problems.
- Sergio Perez's Cadillac stopped on the uphill climb, triggering red flags that ended the session prematurely, while F2 driver Dino Beganovic piloted Charles Leclerc's Ferrari and Ryo Hirakawa replaced Esteban Ocon at Haas.
- Team boss Laurent Mekies confirmed Red Bull faced significant setbacks, citing "a very late call to change his engine" on Isack Hadjar's car before the session and persistent software issues that hampered Verstappen.
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Kimi Antonelli continues with the fine nose and sharpening his weapons for the rest of the weekend. He doesn’t care about the type of circuit and the circumstances, because he seems to be able to extract the maximum or be very close in each session. Only in Barcelona was he seen loosen something regarding Russell, but in Austria he seems intractable again. On a track with seven curves and 67 seconds of travel, the Italian has endorsed 0.2 to Pia…
The Mercedes team led the field in great heat. Stappen had problems at the beginning.
Italian Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) made the best time for the first free practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix, 8th round of the Formula 1 World Championship on Friday at the Red Bull Ring (4326 km) in Spielberg.
Antonelli leads Mercedes one-two in first Austrian GP practice
SPIELBERG, Austria, June 26 - Formula One championship leader Kimi Antonelli was fastest in first practice for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday, with Mercedes teammate George Russell a close second (+0.040) as rivals suffered reliability issues. Read more at straitstimes.com.
"Double victory for Mercedes in the 1st training for the Austrian Formula 1 Grand Prix: World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli has won the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg with a lap time of 1:07,796 minutes, just 0.04 seconds ahead of his teammate George Russell! Behind that, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri (+0.117), Red Bulls Max Verstappen (0.281) and Ferraris Lewis Hamilton (+0.665) landed in places 3, 4 and 5.The result of the 1st training:
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