F1: Verstappen tops Austrian GP practice ahead of Sprint Qualifying

Red Bull ace Max Verstappen, cheered on by the Dutch Orange Army, turned the fastest lap in opening practice for the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring.

Verstappen’s lap of 1m06.302s on soft Pirellis was 0.255s faster than the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Third was George Russell in the Mercedes, 0.400s behind but on medium tires, so Mercedes may be sandbagging.

Sergio Perez was 4th in the 2nd Red Bull, 0.537s behind, while Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top-5in the 2nd Mercedes of the soft rubber.

Lando Norris had an engine fire and dropped out of the session early.

This is the only practice before Sprint race qualifying – up next in two hours.

Practice 1 Results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:06.302	+0.000s	34
2	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:06.557	+0.255s	32
3	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	1:06.702	+0.400s	32
4	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:06.839	+0.537s	27
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:06.909	+0.607s	31
6	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:06.965	+0.663s	32
7	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	1:07.039	+0.737s	29
8	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	1:07.100	+0.798s	32
9	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	1:07.246	+0.944s	32
10	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	1:07.296	+0.994s	33
11	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:07.431	+1.129s	26
12	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	1:07.462	+1.160s	27
13	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:07.476	+1.174s	29
14	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	1:07.522	+1.220s	27
15	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:07.582	+1.280s	32
16	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	1:07.592	+1.290s	33
17	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:07.743	+1.441s	25
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	1:07.889	+1.587s	28
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:08.149	+1.847s	28
20	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:09.915	+3.613s	14