F1 Austrian GP live commentary and updates - FP2

And that's all for Friday practice from our live feed, but stay across Autosport and Motorsport.com for all of the reaction and stories as they unfold!

We'll also have our usual pace analysis from FP2, as we unravel the long runs from each team.

"Struggling a lot with the front, now" Verstappen reports, as he briefly calls his soft stint to an end. Norris is leading the way with race pace, hitting the mid-1m09s, while Verstappen matched him for a time before drifting into the 1m10s.

Hills = alive

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

"I'm not feeling the love somehow, the front end is not gripping in some places," Hulkenberg says.

That's one way to put it, I suppose - they do always say "love is the key...to more front-end adhesion".

Hamilton's been given a call-up to the stewards' office post-session following his earlier moment in potentially impeding Antonelli.

Antonelli, for his part, just has a moment at Turn 1 as he's fiddling with the switches at the wheel.

Bearman had a moment on the exit of Turn 6, brushing the gravel. Haas was rooted to the bottom of the timesheets in FP1, but appears to have made a little bit of progress. That said, the Williamses seem to be lower down than usual.

Bortoleto went up to eighth on his run with the softs, getting to within touching distance of the Red Bulls. 

Tsunoda and Verstappen are sixth and seventh, behind Norris, Piastri, Stroll, Russell, and Leclerc. 

Looks like the order might stay like this, as we gravitate towards the longer runs - the Mercedes duo has changed to medium tyres, as Hadjar goes out on hards.

Bortoleto's about to be the last person to do a soft-tyre time, having not gone out on the C5s yet. 

Hadjar's getting some floor repairs after his earlier aborted lap; the Racing Bulls team are getting the tape out to secure the aero parts underneath.

Tsunoda tries to hustle the Red Bull around and goes fifth, but the car didn't seem to want to comply with his inputs - with a brush of the gravel at Turn 6. 

Hulkenberg, meanwhile, has an off at Turn 1. 

Antonelli almost gets caught out by Hamilton driving very slowly into Turn 4, who couldn't see the Mercedes driver in his mirrors. He puts his hand up by way of apology, although Antonelli is not exactly best pleased with his predecessor's drift towards the outside line.

Lawson is back on track, after that earlier issue. 

Sainz briefly goes second, but Piastri finds a better time to move ahead of the Spaniard and get just 0.144s shy of his team-mate.

Verstappen logs his first lap, himself moving up to second on the softs - 0.116s shy of Norris.

Piastri moves up to the top with a 1m06.129s on hards, moving above Antonelli in the times.

Russell reports that the wind has changed, with a tailwind heading towards Turn 4.

Russell goes up to second on his first timed lap, 0.261s down on Antonelli's opener.

Norris did his first lap of the weekend and went up to sixth on his first run, while neither Red Bull has gone out.

We've got our first times on the board; at the top end of them, Piastri does a 1m06.673s on the hards, before Stroll does a 1m06.610s on his first tour with the C3s.

Antonelli then posts a 1m06.202s on mediums to fastest for now.

Sighter runs to kick off the session, as the drivers assess the changes made to the cars after FP1. It's rare that a team turns up with the optimum set-up for the weekend, so continued fettling will go through the weekend.

Lawson is having an issue with the steering pulling one way at the moment. "If I let go of the steering it goes hard-right". 

FP2 coming up!

Just five minutes to go - and we'll get our usual prelude to tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's race.

Wolff on Russell contract: Discussions are not being held in town halls

Amid the continued interest regarding George Russell's contract with Mercedes, which is still pending renewal, Toto Wolff said that there was nothing more for the Briton to do. 

Wolff on Russell: "He has been part of our program since 10 years or so. He's always performed to the expectations that we have set and he's continuing to do so. 

"We haven't given him a car to win the world championship in the last three years. So that's completely on us. And the times the car has been good, he has been winning races. 

"Those kind of contract discussions start to end up being accelerated in the media or accelerated because of a lack of information. What I have been doing the last 30 years in a normal business, contract discussions are not being held in town halls. So everything is normal. Everything goes to plan."

George Russell, Mercedes, Toto Wolff, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

FP2 starts in 20 minutes

...and we'll have the usual line-up, as Alex Dunne and Dino Beganovic return to the F2 paddock; Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc take their usual places.

Podcast: Why 1999 was F1's best season (in my humble opinion)

FP1 recap

George Russell led the way in FP1, having set a 1m05.542s on soft tyres to lead Max Verstappen by 0.065s.

Oscar Piastri was third fastest while McLaren junior driver Alex Dunne, in for Lando Norris in the session, was an impressive fourth with just a 0.07s deficit to the championship leader.

FP1 Austria standings

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

1

 - 

4

Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	Tyres	km/h
1	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	34	1'05.542		S	237.173
2	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	30	+0.065 1'05.607	0.065	S	236.938
3	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	33	+0.155 1'05.697	0.090	S	236.613
4	A. Dunne McLaren	89		McLaren	Mercedes	29	+0.224 1'05.766	0.069	S	236.365
5	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	34	+0.238 1'05.780	0.014	S	236.314
6	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5		Sauber	Ferrari	35	+0.332 1'05.874	0.094	S	235.977
7	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	35	+0.404 1'05.946	0.072	S	235.720
8	C. Sainz Williams	55		Williams	Mercedes	33	+0.475 1'06.017	0.071	M	235.466
9	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		Ferrari	Ferrari	20	+0.557 1'06.099	0.082	S	235.174
10	I. Hadjar RB	6		RB	Honda	33	+0.568 1'06.110	0.011	S	235.135
View full results

Austrian GP FP2 starts soon...

And welcome back - we'll soon be back up and running for Austria's FP2 session at the Red Bull Ring. 

The second stage of Friday practice will get going at 1600 BST/1700 local time.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images