2020 Austrian GP, Ferrari first practice report: Charles P10, Sebastian P12. 2020 Austrian GP, Ferrari first practice report.

Lewis Hamilton has ended the opening practice session of the 2020 Formula 1 season on top of the timesheets, posting a 1:04.816.

Having dominated the turbo-hybrid era since 2014, Mercedes started the new season strongly with Valtteri Bottas following his teammate home in second place.

Max Verstappen, who is being tipped as a title contender this season was third fastest for Red Bull, six-tenths down on Hamilton.

The session started in slightly damp conditions, with drivers taking to the Red Bull Ring in with the intermediate tyres attached. However, they soon swapped over the slick compounds as conditions improved. 

As McLaren looks to build on its strong 2019 campaign that saw it finish fourth in the constructors’ standings, Carlos Sainz was fourth fastest during practice, while his teammate Lando Norris was sixth.

Lodged between the two papaya-coloured cars was Sergio Perez, who had smoke puffing from his engine earlier in the session – however after Racing Point investigated the matter, it found nothing of concern.

Scuderia Ferrari finish down the order, concentrating on race pace, with Charles Leclerc in P10 and Sebastian Vettel in P12. It was our first look of the weekend at the Ferrari SF1000 which, as you might have heard, is in exactly the same spec as it was back on the final day of testing in February.

Will that leave them well off the leading pace come qualifying?

Austrian Grand Prix – Here are the complete results from the first practice (FP1) session at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Click here to read our complete report from First Practice (FP1) – 2020 Austrian Grand Prix.

Results (Classification):

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:04.816

Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.356

Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.602

Carlos Sainz McLaren +0.615

Sergio Perez Racing Point +0.696

Lando Norris McLaren +0.805

Alex Albon Red Bull Racing +0.885

Daniel Ricciardo Renault +1.044

Kevin Magnussen Haas +1.091

Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.108

Lance Stroll Racing Point +1.258

Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +1.261

Esteban Ocon Renault +1.454

Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +1.544

Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo +1.549

Pierre Gasly Alpha Tauri +1.588

George Russell Williams +1.679

Nicholas Latifi Williams +2.090

Daniil Kvyat Alpha Tauri +2.127

Romain Grosjean Haas No time