Styrian GP FP1: Everything you need to know

Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen was fastest in the first practice session ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

Key moments:

> Verstappen quickest for Red Bull
> Two AlphaTauris in top five
> Mercedes in 3rd and 4th
> Spins for Sainz, Perez and Kubica

Red Bull’s Verstappen topped the session on a 1m05.910s, which was 0.256s ahead of the fellow Honda-powered car of Pierre Gasly.

Traffic proved an issue of the 10-turn circuit, including a lairy moment on the run down to Turn 4 as AlphaTauri’s Gasly had to pull off the track in between the brake marker boards to let allow Verstappen past.

Pierre gives Max plenty of room to pass #StyrianGP 🇦🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/VJl9jR1e2V

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 25, 2021

A few moments later, Gasly was furious at the position of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari at Turn 1.

“Carlos is f***ing blind,” Gasly told his team. ”I cannot f***ing believe it. I let him past, what’s the point to do such a thing?”

Earlier in the session, Sainz spun on the exit of Turn 1 and spend a few moments trying to get going again. He ended up with the 11th-fastest time, with his team-mate Charles Leclerc 10th.

Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were third- and fourth-quickest in the session, but both drivers had near misses with Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi respectively.

Giovinazzi takes to the grass as Bottas gets a little too close for comfort#StyrianGP 🇦🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/mMbIOKiqmh

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 25, 2021

Bottas’ combined fastest sectors gave him the fastest ideal time of the session, but his quickest lap was almost half a second slower than Verstappen’s benchmark.

Yuki Tsunoda, in need of a strong weekend after suffering his third qualifying crash of his rookie F1 season last weekend at Paul Ricard, rounded out the top five in the second AlphaTauri.

The two Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon enjoyed a strong FP1 session with the sixth and seventh quickest times.

The top 10 was completed by Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and Leclerc.

Sergio Perez spun on the exit of Turn 4 and ended up outside of the top 10 along with the McLaren duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris.

Robert Kubica returned to the cockpit of the Alfa Romeo for the first time since he crashed out of FP1 at the Spanish GP.

A big hello to Robert Kubica – he's in Kimi Raikkonen's car for FP1 🙌

The Pole is finding his feet at the start of the session#StyrianGP 🇦🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/6gbLr8LAPw

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 25, 2021

Kubica, who replaced Kimi Raikkonen in the session, spun mid-corner at the Turn 3 right-hander just a couple of minutes into the session.

He recovered to the track and set the 19th-fastest time, only quicker than the Haas of Nikita Mazepin.

Practice 1 Results