Austrian GP: Hamilton quickest as Vettel splits Mercedes in FP1

Championship leader Hamilton took control of the session at the end of his running on a second set of soft tyres.

His 1m04.838s eclipsed Vettel's best by 0.144s after the Ferrari lapped out of sync compared to the rest of the frontrunners.

Valtteri Bottas was just 0.017s behind Vettel in the second of the Mercedes, while Charles Leclerc completed the top four as Ferrari ran through development items to establish why some upgrades introduced last weekend did not work as expected.

None of those four drivers made the early running at the Red Bull Ring, as Max Verstappen kicked off his team's home race by setting the pace initially on medium tyres.

He traded times with Hamilton before Leclerc moved to the top of the pile on a fresh set of medium tyres.

Leclerc's 1m05.409s was a tenth quicker than Verstappen managed, before Bottas put Mercedes ahead with a 1m05.299s on softs.

He improved to a 1m04.999s after that but failed to make further progress after a couple of lock-ups and complaints about the braking.

Bottas had a delayed start to the session after Mercedes discovered an oil leak an hour before FP1 began.

That meant he completed opening practice with an old-spec engine.

As he failed to improve, Hamilton nipped ahead after a series of laps that threatened a new fastest time but never quite delivered.

Vettel then joined in on a new set of medium tyres with around 20 minutes to go and leapt to second.

Verstappen slipped to fifth, four tenths off the pace. He looked capable of setting a faster time after posting the best middle sector of anyone, but did not improve his best.

Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly was just over a tenth slower as he kicked off his weekend in encouraging fashion.

Carlos Sainz won the best-of-the-rest battle with a new upgraded Renault engine in his McLaren.

The Spaniard was only a tenth slower than Gasly and four tenths clear of the works Renault of Daniel Ricciardo.

Kevin Magnussen's Haas and the second McLaren of Lando Norris completed the top 10.

With just over three minutes remaining, the session was red-flagged.

Nico Hulkenberg ran wide exiting the penultimate corner and broke his front wing on the yellow sausage kerbs that line the run-off.

He rejoined via the grass at the final corner and broke more of his car, peppering the circuit with chunks of debris.

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	34	1'04.838
2	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	23	1'04.982	0.144
3	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	37	1'04.999	0.161
4	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	26	1'05.141	0.303
5	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	30	1'05.260	0.422
6	Pierre Gasly		Red Bull	30	1'05.378	0.540
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	34	1'05.502	0.664
8	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	27	1'05.846	1.008
9	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	27	1'05.876	1.038
10	Lando Norris		McLaren	27	1'06.125	1.287
11	Romain Grosjean		Haas	20	1'06.135	1.297
12	Daniil Kvyat		Toro Rosso	29	1'06.272	1.434
13	Alex Albon		Toro Rosso	32	1'06.285	1.447
14	Nico Hulkenberg		Renault	30	1'06.383	1.545
15	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	36	1'06.457	1.619
16	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	30	1'06.708	1.870
17	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	23	1'06.729	1.891
18	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	29	1'06.756	1.918
19	George Russell		Williams	28	1'06.805	1.967
20	Robert Kubica		Williams	28	1'07.665	2.827
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