Russell and Verstappen back into the championship fray as Norris' replacement impresses

George Russell led the way in the opening practice session ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix for Mercedes.

Max Verstappen set the second-quickest time for Red Bull and was just 0.065 of a second slower, with Oscar Piastri in third place.

Alex Dunne stepped in for Lando Norris at McLaren and set the fourth quickest time in an impressive outing as Pierre Gasly ended up in P5.

As it happened

The first practice session got underway at the Red Bull Ring ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg.

At the Red Bull Ring, the opening 10 minutes were chaotic as the majority of the field took to the circuit.

Reigning world champion Verstappen got held up at the Turn 3 hairpin by a Williams before continuing his run on the medium tyre.

With just over 10 minutes gone, Russell set the pace on the hard tyre with a 1:06.537 ahead of Lance Stroll.

FP1 saw two rookies take part in first practice, with Dino Beganovic replacing Charles Leclerc. At McLaren, Irish driver Dunne made his debut on a race weekend, balancing it with his Formula 2 commitments this weekend.

Turn 3 continued to cause issues for Red Bull drivers as Yuki Tsunoda locked up and ran wide before returning to the track.

Lewis Hamilton had a quiet opening 20 minutes, but his engineer Riccardo Adami reported a gearbox issue, and he returned to the pit lane.

As Ferrari floundered, Mercedes maintained a good pace, with Russell setting the fastest time on the soft tyre with a 1:05.776. Carlos Sainz sat in second place in front of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, as three tenths separated the top 3.

Hamilton returned to the track with half an hour to go and began a run on the medium tyre at the Red Bull Ring.

The two McLarens bolted on the soft tyre as Dunne went one-tenth slower than teammate Piastri with 15 minutes to go.

A multitude of upgrades were debuted for the top teams. Ferrari and Red Bull ran a revised floor while McLaren worked on new front suspension.