Mercedes seems determined to respond to Ferrari’s victory in Barcelona and started the Austrian Grand Prix weekend strongly at the Red Bull Ring, round eight of the 2026 season.

Kimi Antonelli was the fastest in the first training session with a best time of 1m07s796, with which he relegated his teammate, George Russell, by just 40 thousandths of a difference.

Oscar Piastri stood out for McLaren by finishing third, 0s117 from the top, in a session where his teammate, Lando Norris’s car, had a hydraulic leak that kept him in the garage for most of the practice. The British finally finished seventh.

Max Verstappen, who also had problems with his RB22 and missed the first minutes of FP1, finished fourth in the premiere of Red Bull’s improvement package, 0s281 off the top.

Lewis Hamilton, winner two weeks ago in Barcelona, ​​finished in fifth place, almost seven tenths behind the Mercedes.

Franco Colapinto, with an Alpine that debuted updates, especially in the front wing, had a solid session on the way to eighth place with a best time of 1m08s962. Behind the Argentine finished Dino Beganovic, who was the best of the six rookie drivers present in the first practice when replacing Charles Leclerc in Ferrari.

Sergio Pérez was 21st for Cadillac with a lap of 1m11s283 in a session in which the Mexican experienced problems in his car and ended up causing a red flag one minute from the end when he stopped in turn three. The positive for the team was Valtteri Bottas’ 13th place, on a day in which Cadillac debuted a comprehensive package of improvements.

This is how the first practice of the Austrian GP unfolded:

In the midst of the heat wave that is hitting Europe, the first free practice of the Austrian Grand Prix began with 30 degrees of ambient temperature and 50 on the asphalt of the Red Bull Ring.

Eager to test the package of improvements that Cadillac presented, Sergio Pérez set the first time of the session with 1m13.530 using the hard tires – Pirelli’s C3 for this weekend – at a start where the choice was distributed between the teams along with the medium rubber (C4).

Franco Colapinto started with 1m11.721 on the medium tyres, while Pierre Gasly started on the hard tires on the other A526.

Max Verstappen caused yellow flags in the pit lane when he was stopped because the anti-stall system was activated. Red Bull mechanics pushed him back to the garage in what was not an ideal start to the team’s home race. However, Red Bull was not the only leading team with problems, as McLaren reported a hydraulic leak in Lando Norris’ car.

After the first ten minutes, Mercedes led the way with Kimi Antonelli lapping in 1m09s119, followed by George Russell just 42 thousandths behind, while Colapinto advanced to fourth place with 1m10s450, behind Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls.

The Mercedes continued to improve, this time with Russell in front with a lap of 1m08s898s, followed by Antonelli a tenth of a difference, before the Italian returned to the top with a 1m08s448s, with the Briton 0s292s behind at the end of 20 minutes.

Verstappen finally took to the track, and he did so with soft tires, to place third in the classifier with 1m09s043, followed by Oscar Piastri and the Ferraris of Dino Beganovic – in the car of Charles Leclerc – and Lewis Hamilton.

Dino Beganovic, Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Checo Pérez, for his part, advanced to 14th place with a lap of 1m11s283, just ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the other Cadillac, in a classifier that still lacked times from Norris and Isack Hadjar.

After the initial half hour, the Mercedes took to the track with the soft rubber and Antonelli remained in front of Russell – and the entire grid – by lapping in 1m07s796, with his teammate at 0s119, before he improved to be at 0s040. Verstappen, with used soft tires, was one second behind with 1m08s892.

Colapinto had his first attempt on the soft ones with 25 minutes remaining and moved from 11th to fourth place in the qualifier momentarily with a time of 1m08s962, before Lindblad climbed to third place with 1m08s726. Gasly, meanwhile, lost his fastest lap when he went into the gravel at turn four with his Alpine understeering. The Frenchman then had another attempt to place ninth, with 1m09.546s.

Entering the final 20 minutes, Hamilton momentarily advanced to third position for Ferrari, but his lap of 1m08s549 left him more than seven tenths behind what the Mercedes did, before Piastri managed to get closer to the Silver Arrows with a time of 1m07s913 to be the new third, at 0s117.

With the Mercedes already focused on the race pace with medium tires, Hamilton had another attempt with the soft tires, but achieved a marginal improvement of less than a tenth, keeping him fourth until Verstappen surpassed him with a lap of 1m08s077 so that the Dutchman was less than three tenths from the top.

Norris, running on the medium tires, advanced to seventh place already in the last ten minutes with a time of 1m08s873 that relegated Colapinto to eighth place in the classifier.

The practice ended with a red flag caused by a problem with Checo Pérez’s Cadillac that left him stopped under braking in turn three. The Mexican had already experienced a failure earlier in the session, but this time it was terminal for his MAC-26.

Watch: A return to the Red Bull Ring with Isack Hadjar

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– The Motorsport.com team