Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton controlled proceedings during the opening free practice session by setting the quickest ever lap at the Red Bull Ring.
Hamilton, equipped with the yellow-ringed Soft tyres, clocked a lap of 1:05.975 to finish comfortably clear of the opposition during the first 90-minute session for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s time was 0.190s quicker than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who escaped a brush with the wall after running through the gravel at Turn 7 early on.
Hamilton’s primary opponents all recorded their quickest laps on the Supersoft compound, with Verstappen’s time coming during the closing stages, enabling him to split the Mercedes pair.
Verstappen attempted another lap, and had posted the quickest first sector time, but spun through Turn 3, ending his hopes of overhauling Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas recovered from a Turn 1 spin to place third, while title leader Sebastian Vettel placed fourth, having also rotated his car at the corner.
Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Räikkönen were next up for Red Bull and Ferrari respectively, while McLaren had both cars inside the top 10, as the MCL32s ran with Honda’s ‘Spec 3’ power unit.
Stoffel Vandoorne was seventh, with Fernando Alonso ninth, though both completed their best effort on the Ultrasoft compound, the softest of the tyres available this weekend.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, on Supersofts, split the McLaren duo to log eighth spot, while Esteban Ocon finished just a thousandth of a second adrift of Alonso, his best time on the Ultrasofts.
Felipe Massa collected 11th spot for Williams, in front of Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz Jr., who spun twice in the session, at Turn 1 and Turn 10 respectively.
Jolyon Palmer placed 14th, ahead of Baku podium finisher Lance Stroll and Haas' Romain Grosjean, whose session came to an early end after he picked up a puncture.
Renault and Force India testers Sergey Sirotkin and Alfonso Celis Jr. replaced Nico Hülkenberg and Sergio Pérez respectively, classifying 17th and 18th.
Sauber finished at the foot of the table, Pascal Wehrlein quicker than team-mate Marcus Ericsson, who finished almost five seconds off Hamilton's pace, having completed only 12 laps.
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