Formula 1 teams and drivers report from Friday practice day for the Austrian Grand Prix

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli laid down an early marker for the Austrian Grand Prix by topping both Friday practice sessions as Mercedes bounced back strongly from its first defeat of the 2026 season. The Italian edged team-mate George Russell by just 0.040s in FP1 before finishing 0.237s clear of Oscar Piastri in the afternoon.

Mercedes looked quickest throughout the day, although McLaren emerged as its closest challenger, with Piastri second and Lando Norris third in FP2 despite hydraulic issues delaying Norris's running. Piastri admitted Mercedes had the edge but described McLaren's day as productive.

Max Verstappen finished fourth in both sessions for Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton was fifth as Ferrari continued evaluating its latest upgrades in scorching conditions.

The day was interrupted by several incidents, including software problems for Verstappen, mechanical failures for Cadillac drivers Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, plus a pit-lane mishap involving Haas reserve Ryo Hirakawa that fortunately caused no injuries.

Kimi Antonelli - FP1: 1:07.796, P1; FP2: 1:07.014, P1

"It's been a clean and productive day for us. From FP1 onwards, I've felt comfortable in the car, which gave us a good platform to work from as we built through the sessions.

"The hot conditions will continue to make things quite challenging, particularly in terms of tyre management. Keeping the tyres in the right working window without overheating is important, so that's an area we'll continue to focus on.

"We've gathered a lot of useful information, but there's still work to do and the picture will likely evolve overnight. We'll analyse everything in detail and focus on making the right improvements ahead of Qualifying."

George Russell - FP1: 1:07.836, P2; FP2: 1:07.637, P6

"It's been a solid day overall and a good place to start the weekend. The car felt competitive from the outset, and we've got a solid base to work from, but with the margins so tight, it's clear a few teams are going to be in the fight.

"From my side, there are still a few areas to improve. It's clear there's performance to unlock and those are the kind of steps we can focus on overnight. The long-run pace looked strong in the conditions we've seen today, which is encouraging. Tyre management is going to be important this weekend, and that is something we will continue to keep on top of throughout the weekend.

"We've got a good foundation to build on and, with a few tweaks, I'm confident we can take a step forward and put ourselves in the mix for Qualifying."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "In recent years, we've failed to get the car in a good position on this track. After a lot of preparation for the past few months, it was interesting to see how the W17 was behaving today. Aside from a few tricky corners and a tendency to run the rear tyres hot, the altitude adds additional challenges to the power unit and cooling system.

"Our morning session was packed with test items. We managed to make good progress and were able to complete most of the usual race weekend work. We identified a few balance issues which we worked on into the afternoon session.

"The track was slightly cooler in the afternoon, and Kimi finished the day on a positive note although both were able to do solid long runs. George didn't quite get the single lap together in the afternoon but that wasn't a concern in the morning. We've got plenty of data to work with overnight to put that back in a good place.

"It looks quite close with the competition in terms of single lap and long run and it's hard to say exactly where we sit but compared to the last few seasons here, it seems to be a good improvement and we'll do our usual overnight work searching for that bit more pace."

Lando Norris - FP1: 1:08.873, P7; FP2: 1:07.339, P3

“An issue in Free Practice 1 put us on the back foot, but once that was resolved we started to make some progress as the sessions went on today. From a pace point of view, we’ve had a reasonable day, and we’re a bit closer to the cars ahead, which is encouraging.

“This track seems to suit us as we’ve seen in the last few years, and that’s a good trend for the weekend ahead. The priority now is to build a little more confidence in the car, and if we can do that, I think we can take another step forward to the leading teams. There’s work to do, but the signs are positive and we’ll keep pushing to turn that into a stronger position ahead of tomorrow’s Qualifying.”

Oscar Piastri - FP1: 1:07.913, P3; FP2: 1:07.251, P2

“We had a pretty good day finishing well in both sessions. We knew Mercedes would be a step ahead, and that’s how it played out, but it was productive for us. We worked through a lot of setup items and got through some homework carried over from Spain. We did a good job trialling different approaches and understanding the car better.

“Looking ahead to tomorrow, there are definitely areas where we can learn overnight to help close the gap, but I am feeling more comfortable, and I’m happy with how today has gone. We’ll focus on incremental gains and see where that gets us.”

Neil Houldey, Technical Director, Applied Engineering

“We're reasonably pleased with our progress today, although we know there's more performance to find in the car. Lando did an excellent job to get up to speed so quickly in FP2 after the hydraulic issue cost him most of the first session, which was very encouraging to see. While we feel we have opportunities to improve overnight, we are under no illusions about the level of competition. We expect it to be incredibly tight at the front.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to run the experimental wing we brought to the track. The team at the factory worked tirelessly to get it here, but during final sign-off tests in the garage, it didn't perform as expected, and we weren't comfortable running it. The correct decision was to focus our track time on optimising the current package for this weekend. It’s disappointing, but we will conduct more work on the component before bringing it to a future event.”

Max Verstappen - FP1: 1:08.077, P4; FP2: 1:07.564, P4

“In the practice sessions today it was a little bit tricky to find the right balance. We need to work on our front to rear grip and find the right compromise there. This will help us find a little more pace as we are not quite there at the moment compared to the others. We will see what we can do tomorrow to find more stability in general and hopefully have a good Qualifying.”

Isack Hadjar - FP1: 1:09.481, P12; FP2: 1:07.758, P7

“We struggled to extract the most out of the car and our upgrades today as it felt off balance. In FP1 we were a bit slow to get started, and struggled with grip so it was a bit of a guessing game, but balance felt better in FP2, so that’s good news. It felt a lot easier to drive, so the performance should come tomorrow, but we’re not where we want to be yet. We will need to do a lot of digging and work on the set up for tomorrow, but the car usually comes alive in Qualifying so hopefully we can find some good pace.”

Pierre Wache, Technical Director

“We had an issue in the garage on both cars and FP1 was quite difficult, which can sometimes happen when you change so much of the car. In FP1 we were a bit limited with what we could do, especially on Isack’s car as he had less track time. We were trying to understand the car and the new package and we modified a few things on the set up in FP2: some were in the right direction and some were not. We obviously have some work to do, which is the case when you change a few things on the car. There is a lot to learn but we hope we have a good path to Qualifying. It is difficult to say if the full package on the car is delivering what we expected. You only know your own performance and not what the car is doing in relation to the others, so we are quite happy with what we are doing. It is hard to say where we will end up on Sunday. The long runs were quite promising compared to what we did in Barcelona and clearly, in the short runs, we will need to improve. We are focusing on that and hopefully will see a positive outcome tomorrow.”

errari: 

Lewis Hamilton - FP1: 1:08.461, P5; FP2: 1:07.611, P5

"I’d say it was a solid but challenging start to the weekend, with the high temperatures making an already demanding circuit even tougher.

"The car felt quite positive straight out of the box, but this track is pretty unforgiving, so that even a small balance issue costs you a lot of lap time. We’ve definitely got some work to do to find the right setup and balance and unlock some performance.

"It’s all about staying focused, understanding where we’re losing out and seeing what we can do ahead of tomorrow."

Charles Leclerc - FP2: 1:07.855, P8

"We gathered quite a lot of data today, which gives us useful insight into the areas of our car which we can still work on improving tonight. We were not as competitive as we would have liked to be right now, and our focus is on taking steps forward in refining our performance so that we can challenge our competitors tomorrow."

Dino Beganovic - FP1: 1:09.054, P9

"It’s always an amazing feeling to drive a Formula 1 car, especially a Ferrari. The session was very good in general, and I am happy with how it went.

"At the start of the session, we ran some different tests, to gather as much data as possible for the team. We had a solid run on the Medium tyres, and then went out on Softs. The general balance of the car felt good and I felt I was back into the rhythm straight away, after my last FP1 in Barcelona.

"A big thank you to Scuderia Ferrari for the trust and this opportunity. I hope to have the chance to get behind the wheel again soon."

Arvid Lindblad - FP1: 1:08.726, P6; FP2: 1:08.378, P12

"Overall, it was a good Friday here at the Red Bull Ring. The pace we showed on track was okay and I think we're in a similar place to the last few races. Today I've been struggling a bit with the brakes and the balance, but they are small things which we can work on overnight to try and be in a better place for the rest of the weekend. The team has done an unbelievable job on the car development over the last few races, and looking at where we are now, I'm confident we can fight for Q3 and points this weekend."

Liam Lawson - FP2: 1:16.967, P9

"A solid afternoon overall. I missed FP1 this morning, so I had a bit of catching up to do in FP2, but the car felt like it was in a good place and that made it pretty easy to get back into the groove. There’s still plenty of work to do heading into tomorrow. It’s incredibly close in the midfield, so we’ll need to stay on top of everything and make sure we keep finding those small improvements. So far, we’ve got a decent package, and I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.”

Alan Permane, Team Principal

“A good day for us. We had Ayumu in the car for Liam during FP1 who did a great job. Starting with an aero investigation, which proved positive and we carried the configuration through to FP2 on both cars. Liam and Arvid were both happy with the car this afternoon, we had decent balance and were able to work through our program without any issues. Arvid continues to grow in confidence, especially now that we’re on tracks he knows well. He should be able to step up each weekend, and we’re already starting to see that in him. Liam also did a great job out there despite missing FP1 this morning, he was up to speed straight away. We still have a bit of work to do on our braking, which is where we feel our main weakness lies, so that's our focus overnight. Overall, we're much happier with our long-run pace here than we were in Barcelona, and we've made a step forward."

Esteban Ocon – FP2: 1:08.830, P15

“I jumped in the car after Ryō was in for FP1, so there was a lot to take on board, but there seems to be a lot less degradation than in Barcelona, which is quite positive, even with the heat. We've got a clear direction of where we want to go tomorrow and what we need to improve, so we'll try to do that. It's too early to see where we'll stand, but we'll try and do the best we can.”

Oliver Bearman - FP1: 1:09.071, P10; FP2: 1:08.532, P13

“It’s been a positive day overall. I’ve been happy with the progress, honestly, and the car has also been good. We had a few things to focus on after Barcelona, and I think the car is in a good window right now. The gaps are tight like normal, so we need to make a step for tomorrow, but as far as Fridays go, I’m pretty happy.”

Ryo Hirakawa - FP1: 1:10.493, P19

“It was my first time in the VF-26 today, so a big thank you to TGR Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing for the opportunity. It was a hectic session and we were busy working through quite a few tests, but everything went well. I couldn't really do a proper lap though because we were limited by time, but there was some good feedback between me and the team, which they can take into the rest of the weekend.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“We had Ryō in the car for FP1, and we had a very different program, focusing on test items, considering what’s been happening the last few races. That was really important, so in terms of lap times, I wouldn’t read anything into that because, honestly, our program was very different and we weren’t focused on one-lap performance. On Ollie’s side, I’d say that was one of the best starts to a weekend we’ve had in quite a few races, which is really good. We’ve been saying we need to start the weekend on the front foot, getting our set-up in the ballpark, and build up from there, and I feel overall today we’ve done that. In FP2, it was far from perfect, and we need to find performance, but today I felt our operations were good, our cars started from a good place, and we were chipping away at it. We still have performance to find on both low and high-fuel, but I think it was a good Friday and a good reaction from the last few races.”

Pierre Gasly - FP1: 1:09.546, P14; FP2: 1:08.376, P11

“It’s been a hot one here in Austria, which has certainly brought its challenges in the car, even if we did test out the cooling vest device. Today was about data gathering, especially as we’ve brought a few new parts to the car for this weekend. Well done and thank you to the team at Enstone and trackside for preparing everything in time and now we have a lot of data to work through to see how well it works and what we can do to further improve. We definitely have a bit more to find overnight, which I am confident we can do given our recent trend of finding improvements between Friday to Saturday. I think we’re definitely in that mix for the top 10 alongside our usual rivals. We’ll focus on ourselves and work to find more pace but that’s the target: Q3 tomorrow and points on Sunday.”

Franco Colapinto - FP1: 1:08.962, P8; FP2: 1:08.831, P16

“It was a fairly tricky first day here in Austria where, in general, we had some challenges with the car in the heat. Free Practice 1 was reasonable where we tried out the new parts on the car and ran some comparisons like we normally would do in Practice. I would say the car felt a bit disconnected so we tried some set-up changes ahead of Free Practice 2. We have a lot to look at in the data as it did not really click for me in the second session. We know where we performed well and where we need to improve, so the hard work will continue overnight as we aim to make the most of our package. I am sure we will figure out which direction to go and find more pace ahead of tomorrow.”

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director

“Today has been a busy and productive Friday for the team with a lot of data gathering and laps completed to prepare for the weekend as well as analyse the new parts we’ve brought to both cars in Austria. The initial feeling and feedback is that it’s a solid baseline to build from and we will look more into the data and try to extract the maximum from the package and how it interacts and performs with the rest of the car. We knew this circuit configuration isn’t necessarily a definitive test. It does give us some indication, but I expect Silverstone next week will be a much better test. Given the short nature of the track here, the gaps are always very tight, so we need to be at our very best to get both cars into the top 10 and put ourselves in a strong position for the race. As in previous races, the car looked more competitive on high fuel, so if we can start higher up, I’m optimistic that we can look forwards and fight for points. With the heat and high track temperatures, it can lead to some instability particularly at the rear, so that’s something we’ll be looking at closely tonight with the engineers and back at Enstone.”

Nico Hulkenberg - FP1: 1:09.165, P11; FP2: 1:08.559, P14

“It was a straightforward Friday with no major issues. We worked through the planned programme, learning more about the tyres, the car balance and the usual areas we focus on during practice. Overall, it has been a solid day, and we will analyse everything overnight ahead of tomorrow.

“Today was also my first experience with the new update package. It is always difficult to make direct comparisons from one circuit to another, but the initial feeling was positive. We have gathered some useful information and now the focus is on understanding the data further and making some progress overnight.”

Gabriel Bortoleto - FP2: 1:08.300, P10

"It was a decent session for me. The feeling in the car seemed positive: obviously, having sat out FP1 meant I had to adapt to things pretty quickly, but I think looked okay overall. We are bringing some upgrades this weekend and it looks like they’re doing their job, but it’s still early for a final verdict: we'll have a clearer picture tomorrow once we've had time to analyse all the data gathered from today.

“The margins are really tight, so it will be all about finding the right balance, putting together a clean lap, and feeling confident with the car. If we can do that, I think we can be competitive in qualifying."

Paul Aron - FP1: 1:09.646, P17

"It was great to be back in an F1 car and, as always, it's a real pleasure to drive these machines. I enjoyed my previous FP1 outing in Barcelona, so I was looking forward to getting back behind the wheel here, even though we knew the conditions would be challenging with the high temperatures. Overall, the session went well, and we completed the planned programme. I was happy with the pace on the medium tyre, while we weren’t able to put in a representative soft tyre lap in our first run due to an issue and didn't have enough time for another attempt due to the red flag. But that's part of running a busy Friday programme. The most important thing is that we completed all the test items and gathered good data. I'm grateful to everyone at Audi Revolut F1 Team and Alpine for this opportunity and I wish the team the best for the remainder of the weekend."

Alex Albon - FP1: 1:09.644, P16; FP2: 1:08.838, P17

"We struggled with pace today. We didn't expect to struggle on this track as much, but the heat has also been a contributing factor with tyre deg. High-speed corners are our weakness, whereas in the low-speed sections we're on par with the rest of the field - so we need to find something extra there. It's not for a lack of effort from the whole team, and we're trying various things, but we haven't found the right balance yet. Our low-fuel runs are currently stronger than our high-fuel runs, so we need to analyse the data tonight and put together a plan to address both qualifying and race pace."

Carlos Sainz - FP2: 1:09.131, P18

“It was a very difficult Friday here in Austria. Obviously missing FP1 is never ideal but Luke did a good job for us. After jumping in for FP2, we had some issues with the car that impacted our run plan but we did manage to get some laps in. Unfortunately, we are very far off and we need to unlock performance overnight if we want a shot at Q2. It’s looking to be a difficult weekend for us with the heat and the high-speed nature of the track, but I’ll do my best to extract whatever is available.”

Luke Browning - FP1: 1:09.979, P18

“It was a new experience in FP1 today. It’s a very different car compared to last year’s as well as TPC testing, but it was great to get to grips with it and get behind the wheel. I think I adapted quickly, especially with the jump to the soft tyre, so I was very happy with my performance. It was great to make some improvements through the session in braking and high-speed confidence, so by the end I was happy with my run and I look forward to the next time I can get out in the car."

Aston Martin: Another tough Friday for us

Fernando Alonso - FP1: 1:11.333, P22; FP2: 1:10.544, P19

"Another tough Friday for us. We experimented with a few different setup changes across both sessions, but there’s still more work to do overnight to get the car into better shape for tomorrow."

Jak Crawford - FP1: 1:11.202, P20

"It was a good session overall, and I'm happy with how it went. I felt up to speed and comfortable in the car and took away some key learnings.

"The team gave me some good feedback and we managed to get through the whole programme as planned, although unfortunately we couldn't do the start at the end because of the Red Flag.

"It was a tricky session in the heat with the tyres. We ran the Hard and the Soft compounds, the same as Fernando, so we could compare data.

"I don't think anyone expected it to be this hot, so teams are struggling a bit out there. The grip was pretty low, so the more you slide, the more it affects the tyres. They were overheating quite a bit."

Shintaro Orihara, Honda Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer

“Today in the opening two practice sessions we commenced our power unit programme for the Austrian Grand Prix. This is a track that has demanding conditions for the PU and the turbocharger at high altitude, especially combined with the extreme heatwave that Europe is currently experiencing.

“We’ve been able to gather three sets of driver feedback today, with Jak filling in for Lance during FP1. It was helpful to have Jak physically drive the AMR26 as he is usually participating in the driver-in-loop simulator back at the AMR Technology Campus, focusing on PU elements like energy management and engine mapping.

“Heading into the final practice session tomorrow, we will fine-tune our energy management and cooling packages ahead of qualifying and the race.”

Valtteri Bottas - FP1: 1:09.521, P13; FP2: 1:18.225, P18

“Firstly, I'm really proud of the team for working so hard to get the upgrades here for this weekend and working flat out on the car to get it ready for this morning. FP1 was positive as we had the upgrades to evaluate in the session, and everything seemed to be working like we expected. I think we’ve made a step on the overall car performance. However, FP2 was more difficult today. We had mechanical issue with the car, which prevented us from completing most of our run plans. The main thing tonight is getting the car in the right place and then continuing our work tomorrow.”

Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:11.283, P21; FP2: 1:19.261, P20

“Let’s start with the positives. Valtteri had a very good session in the morning. We could see a bit of light in the new upgrades, but unfortunately running was very limited for me today. We don’t fully understand what the issue is on my side yet, so we will change the electricals and engine tonight – which was already planned, fortunately – to make sure that we have a clean day tomorrow as we have a lot of work ahead of us. Hopefully we can find out where we really are and have a much more straightforward day.”

Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal

“We introduced a major new upgrade package for this race, and I would like to thank the team across our bases and at the track for their efforts in having it ready to run today. Valtteri demonstrated how much of a big step forward it represents in the morning session, so we can take confidence from this. Unfortunately, Checo had a much more challenging day, with very little running. We will investigate the reasons tonight to fully maximize the extra performance it gives in tomorrow’s Qualifying session.”

Simon Berra, Chief Engineer

“Today was very useful for gathering a significant amount of data on all the compounds, both in performance runs and in long runs. The teams differed across the two sessions between those who preferred to save both sets of Hard tyres for the coming days and those who had already used up one set of the hardest compound. This could also point towards a range of different strategies for Sunday, for which there is currently quite a wide spread of possible options.

"Considering the degradation exacerbated by the high temperatures and the notably abrasive surface, a two-stop Grand Prix is more likely. In terms of grip, the C3 and C4 displayed very similar behaviour, still not optimal due to a track surface that is not in the best condition but which will improve over the weekend. The Soft, on the other hand, is already delivering very good performance and, from some attempts, it even appears that drivers can improve their time on a second lap. This will obviously need to be verified in tomorrow’s qualifying.

"The red tyre was not widely used in today’s long runs, so we do not yet have a clear understanding of its consistency over high mileage, as we do for the Medium and Hard. It could therefore represent the least favourable option in defining race strategies, should teams opt for a conservative approach, also considering that the forecasts indicate a further rise in temperatures.”