F1 Austrian GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP1 & Sprint Qualifying

That's all for us on the live text blog today. But we'll be back tomorrow to bring you all the updates from the track sessions as it happens. We hope to see you then. In the meantime, do check out the website for all the news and reaction to sprint qualifying. Thank you as always for joining us. Goodbye!

Anybody fancy a repeat of last week's feisty squabble to Turn 1 between Norris and Verstappen? We may get just that in tomorrow's sprint after both men qualified on the front row. That will be at 11am BST on Saturday, followed later in the afternoon, at 3pm BST, by qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. 

Another individual you suspect might be quietly pleased is Logan Sargeant, who ends up ahead of Alex Albon on the grid following the Thai's SQ1 elimination. That's not a feat that has been especially common since he arrived in F1 in 2023, but he'll need a little more than that to help his case for remaining on the grid next year.

So, all told a slightly scruffy SQ3 session, but aside from Red Bull you'd imagine some of the happiest faces in the paddock might be found at Alpine. Getting two cars into the top 10, ending up eighth and ninth thanks to Leclerc's dramas, would have been a pipe dream back in Bahrain.

Verstappen radios in to his engineers to tell them he reckoned the outlap was "a bit too quick". F1 teams will leave their flying laps until right at the last minute...

Verstappen then will head Norris and Piastri away from the grid for the sprint tomorrow, with Russell fourth and Sainz fifth. Hamilton ends up sixth, while Perez, Ocon and Gasly all got in each other's way and ended up way down on the leading pace. Leclerc ran out of time to get to the line and start his flying lap.

Both McLarens are faster than the Mercedes pair, with Norris ahead of Piastri. But what can Verstappen do?

The Ferrari driver had to pull off to one side of the pit exit, but appears to have got the issue sorted. It won't be the ideal preparation for a single push lap however.

Hamilton is the first man out on track, so he won't have the benefit of any tow - or the potential downside of any aerodynamic interference. It'll be a one-lap shootout for sprint pole. Who can make it count?

Out go the Mercedes drivers. Piastri follows them onto the circuit.

Everyone is leaving this until the end of the session. One lap on the tyre will be all they get with the soft.

Everybody will be going out on the soft, when they do emerge from the pits. Who will be first to blink?

There looks to be some attention being paid to the right-rear corner on Verstappen's Red Bull, but none of the mechanics whose faces we can see look unduly concerned as the Dutchman seeks to complete a clean sweep of fastest times today in the session he'll care most about.

At the sharp end, Verstappen had the edge on Russell, Piastri, Sainz, Leclerc, Hamilton and Norris, with Perez, Ocon and Gasly seeing out the top 10. Which of these drivers will earn sprint pole in the decisive session coming up?

Could Stroll have made it into SQ3 without a big old wobble at the final corner? "I had a big slide in the last corner," he tells his engineer in what amounts to a severe understatement. Still, outqualifying Alonso can be considered a job well done.

The margins really are tiny in Formula 1 currently. Just 0.049s was all that kept Magnussen out of a place in the top 10, while Stroll was 0.090s away in P12. But the Alpine team will be chuffed to have Ocon bang on half a tenth away from the top spot, and Gasly sneaking in to join him in SQ3 with tenth spot.

Ocon and Gasly are in the top 10 as it stands, Magnussen the man just on the outside looking in currently. 

Only the top eight have set times so far. Now we see the remaining drivers that have yet to appear in the session, with Stroll joined on track by team-mate Alonso, the two Alpines, Magnussen, Tsunoda and Sargeant. And here come some of the leading bunch too, with Hamilton, Norris and Perez deciding they don't feel too safe in sixth, seventh and eighth.

No track limits violations on those first runs now the drivers have their eye in a little bit. But Leclerc comes mighty close to having a Tsunoda moment at Turn 9 as he flicks up stones with his left-rear wheel just dipping into the gravel. No holding back for the Ferrari driver who won the Austrian GP in 2022.

After Piastri took a brief turn at occupying second, Russell becomes the latest driver to become the closest challenger to Verstappen as he clocks in 0.139s in arrears.

Not unsurprisingly, we can see there is some attention being paid to the floor section of Tsunoda's car. Presumably there will be some gravel that needs removing too.

They will be joined in the second segment by Gasly, fresh from signing his new deal with Alpine, Alonso, Hamilton, Sargeant and Tsunoda. Hopefully the RB driver's heart rate will have come down a little after his scary moment in the dying moments of the previous session.

Let's run down the order at the top in that session. Verstappen paced Russell, Sainz, Norris and Stroll - making it five different manufacturers in the top five - ahead of Piastri, Leclerc, Perez, Ocon and Magnussen. 

Ricciardo is joined in the drop zone by Hulkenberg, Bottas, Albon and Zhou as Sargeant makes it through in 14th.

Hamilton's lap was compromised slightly by having to move out of the way for Bottas in the last sector, while his former team-mate was finishing off his own flyer, and the Finn then headed into the escape road at Turn 1 which will have been a distraction. But he is P12 for the moment.

Alonso, Albon and Ricciardo are the three drivers who have set a time that are currently in the drop zone along with Hamilton and Zhou, who fell foul of track limits on their first runs. Both the Mercedes and the Sauber drivers have visited the pits and returned to the track to have another crack at it.

Hamilton and Zhou are the first drivers who have times deleted for track limits infringements at Turns 6 and 9 respectively.