FP1: Mercedes fastest as 2020 season kicks off in Austria
World Champions Mercedes AMG F1 went on from where they left off in 2019 by going fastest in the first practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton topped the timing sheets with team mate Valtteri Bottas an easy second.
Both Mercedes, along with all their customer teams ran an updated version of the power unit that was used in winter testing. Reliability problems were discovered in that specification, so amends were made to avoid such unexpected retirements when it really counts.
Behind the black Mercedes cars, Max Verstappen was third fastest, 6 tenths down on pace setter Hamilton, and just a fraction quicker than Carlos Sainz in the McLaren Renault.
A single tenth further down was Sergio Perez in the Racing Point, followed by Norris, Albon and Ricciardo.
Kevin Magnussen put Haas in the top 10 while Romain Grosjean was slowest of all, encountering problems on his car.
Cherles Leclerc completed the top 10 for Ferrari. Though it's early days, Ferrari is wary it might be facing a difficult start of the season after analysis from winter testing revealed several flaws in their 2020 car. The first updates to remedy the problems are only about to arrive at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Results to follow...
