Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes led the first practice session at the Red Bull Ring but Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari was just a tenth of a second slower on harder tyres.

Hamilton headed the times with a best effort of 1’04.838, just one-thousandth of a second inside his best time from the same session last year. However on a hot, 46C track, the medium tyres seemed to be holding up better than the softs Hamilton ran. Vettel, on mediums, was 0.144 seconds slower than him in second place. Hamilton also picked up light damage to his front-left wing endplate.

Their team mates came next. Mercedes discovered an oil leak on Valtteri Bottas’s W10 an hour before the session began. They swapped his spec two unit out for his old spec one example, but he wasn’t able to join in proceedings until half an hour after the session started. Like Hamilton he set his best time on the soft tyres, and had a medium-shod Ferrari a tenth of a second behind him.

The Red bull pair were fifth and sixth-quickest at their home track, but around the short 64-second lap the gaps were much closer than usual. Max Verstappen was within half a second of Hamilton, and their closest rivals were little over a tenth of a second behind.

They were led by Carlos Sainz Jnr, who has a new power unit in his McLaren and will take a grid penalty. Team mate Lando Norris joined him in the top 10, the pair separated by Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen.

Nico Hulkenberg in the other Renault managed the 14th-best time but also brought the session to an early end. He wrecked the left-hand side of his front wing on a kerb at turn nine, scattering debris across the track, and bringing out the red flags with three minutes to go.

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First practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’04.838 +0.144 Sebastian Vettel – 1’04.982 +0.161 Valtteri Bottas – 1’04.999 +0.303 Charles Leclerc – 1’05.141 +0.422 Max Verstappen – 1’05.260 +0.540 Pierre Gasly – 1’05.378 +0.664 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’05.502 +1.008 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’05.846 +1.038 Kevin Magnussen – 1’05.876 +1.287 Lando Norris – 1’06.125 +1.297 Romain Grosjean – 1’06.135 +1.434 Daniil Kvyat – 1’06.272 +1.447 Alexander Albon – 1’06.285 +1.545 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’06.383 +1.619 Sergio Perez – 1’06.457 +1.870 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’06.708 +1.891 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’06.729 +1.918 Lance Stroll – 1’06.756 +1.967 George Russell – 1’06.805 +2.827 Robert Kubica – 1’07.665

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2019 Austrian Grand Prix