F1 Austrian GP live commentary and updates - FP1

Thanks for joining us, and we'll be back for FP2! We'll see you then.

Big mix of compounds here as we've got the high-fuel runs to end this session; all three compounds represented as it stands - all except Hamilton are on the road.

Antonelli finds this out as he reports a lot of traffic - 'Bono' tries to assuage his current fears.

Hamilton gets a 'proper' lap in now on the softs and goes up to ninth. The field is now just separated by about 1.2s here.

Russell reports a few raindrops, with the clouds coming in - although that might well just be sweat from his balaclava...it has happened, after all.

With a bit under 15 minutes remaining, we've got another slight lull - Russell's back out, doing a bit of long-run stuff out there.

And that's what we can expect to see over the rest of the session, giving the teams a bit of a data point to prepare for FP2 with.

Views from the Red Bull Ring

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

Dunne's been circulating on a set of used softs, and climbs up to fourth, 0.069s off Piastri in third - this is quite impressive in his first effort in an F1 FP1 session.

We had a brief yellow flag, presumably for Ocon's Turn 1 lock-up. He flat-spotted a tyre, as he went into the run-off at a vast rate of knots.

Verstappen splits Russell and Piastri to move into second, posting a 1m05.607s. 

Dunne goes up to eighth, 0.477s off Russell's pace at the top. 

Dunne's improved on his second hot lap with the hard tyre, moving up to 13th in the order, 0.1s down on Piastri's initial effort on mediums. 

The Australian then does a lap on softs, going 0.155s off Russell's benchmark.

Russell's improved to a 1m05.542s, while Gasly does a soft-tyre lap and goes up to second. Bortoleto is third, 0.373s off Russell's second soft-tyre effort. The Brazilian rookie gets another effort in; there's a lot of traffic, but he improves by about 0.04s. 

Dunne gets a first proper lap on the board, setting a 1m08.520s on the hard tyre. Solid first effort from the Offaly-born driver, although he had a snatch on the brakes at Turn 3 and lost time there.

Order at 20 minutes

With the opening third of FP1 now in the books, the top 10 order looks like this: 

1. Russell, 2. Antonelli, 3. Verstappen, 4. Gasly, 5. Sainz, 6. Bortoleto, 7. Lawson, 8. Hadjar, 9. Alonso, 10. Tsunoda.

Antonelli reports that he's got front locking, which Pete Bonnington sees in the data and has a fix in mind for it. 

Fellow rookie Bortoleto goes up to third, while Tsunoda has a lock-up at Turn 3. "The brake is really poor," he reports.

Dunne is going to pick up the new front wing that McLaren briefly introduced over the Canada weekend, which should offer the team more insight into the design.

Russell and Antonelli are in the top two positions - the Briton having improved to a 1m06.139s, with Verstappen third.

Russell returns to the top with a 1m06.537s, on the hards. Seems like there's a lot of ride-height exploration in these opening laps, as drivers try to find the optimum downforce level for this circuit.

Verstappen has a lock-up at Turn 1 - he reports that the front end hasn't been particularly helpful so far.

Russell has done a 1m07.140s on the hard tyres, 0.242s ahead of Sainz. Verstappen kicks up some dust at Turn 6, as he's got Simon Rennie filling in for Gianpiero Lambiase this weekend. 

Lando Norris takes a place on the pit wall as he watches Dunne take over his car in this session. The Irishman is wrapping up his early sighter laps with the aero rakes, just to ensure he's doing the hard yards first before he gets a 'proper' go.

Hamilton, Dunne, Ocon, and Beganovic are first to hit the road for these exploratory laps at the start of FP1.

FP1 coming up!

Lewis Hamilton has just queued up at the pitlane exit to help Ferrari trial its new floor updates for this race, while Alex Dunne is also bearing aero rakes.

The race's history as the Osterreichring

But long before the circuit became the A1-Ring, the larger circuit was known as the Osterreichring and was a much faster venue - this was on the F1 calendar from 1970-1987.

The first corner was a lot further back and initially was a fast, sweeping right-hander before a chicane was added in 1977.

Some of the parts of the circuit were kept for the revamped A1-Ring, albeit with the long-radius corners tightened up. The below image of 1977 winner Alan Jones shows how the final corner - the Jochen Rindt Kurve - used to be...

Alan Jones, Shadow DN8 Ford

Photo by: Motorsport Images

The return of the Red Bull Ring

After a decade away from F1, the Red Bull Ring (formerly the A1-Ring) returned to the calendar in 2014 and hasn't been off it since.

Clearly, people were missing the views!

Kamui Kobayashi (JPN) Caterham CT05 and Marcus Ericsson (SWE) Caterham CT05 and rear action at the start of the race

Photo by: Sutton Images

FP1 begins in half an hour

And so, we'll get our first look at how the field shapes up heading into the Austrian Grand Prix weekend. Well, sort of - it's only the first session after all.

But let's be honest, we just want to see some cars!

Vowles on new deal

James Vowles spoke this morning after extending his contract as Williams' team principal last week - a decision he says was "not difficult at all".

"I feel really at home here. I loved my time at Mercedes, but it just feels like home here.

"I think we had to do first and foremost, we have to recognise that I wasn't a TP - it's the first job I've taken in that regard, so it was a large step up. I had to prove to myself and prove to everyone that I was able to do it, and I think we're seeing evidence that it's OK.

"I'm here to win world championships, and the next step is the commitment to do it - we all agree that that's what we want to be doing."

Dunne and Dino drive in FP1

We've got a couple of different faces in for FP1 in Austria. Dino Beganovic makes his second appearance of the year in a Ferrari in place of Charles Leclerc, while F2 title leader Alex Dunne drives Lando Norris' McLaren in this session.

The Irishman has undergone TPC testing to prepare for his first appearance at an F1 weekend.

Alex Dunne, Rodin Motorsport

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

F1 Austrian GP weekend starts here

The hills are alive with the sound of F1 cars - or at least, they will be in about an hour's time. We're back in Europe for the Austrian Grand Prix weekend at the Red Bull Ring.

And if you've never been, it's certainly one for those who love a good view of the Austrian countryside. Oh, and good races too.

Stunning views at the Red Bull Ring

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images