Lewis Hamilton made the ideal start to his Austrian Grand Prix weekend, leading Practice 1 on Friday in his Mercedes.
The British driver posted a 1:05.975s on the soft compound tyres, the hardest Pirelli has brought to the Red Bull Ring, making his table-topping time even more impressive.
He may not have remained there, however, had it not been for a spin at Turn 2 for Max Verstappen, shortly after setting the fastest time in the first sector in the final minutes. The Dutchman, who survived hitting the wall earlier in the session after an off at Turn 6, had moved up into second place on his previous flying lap to split the two Silver Arrows, as Valtteri Bottas took third.
Ferrari made an inconspicuous start, with both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel spinning at Turn 1 in the first 40 minutes. Though the German's moment came after hitting too much kerb at the apex, his team-mates initially looked more serious as the rear suddenly lost all grip entering the braking zone, suggesting an issue with the brake-by-wire system but there were no lasting effects.
Vettel would go on to finish fourth and Raikkonen sixth, with the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in-between.
In the midfield, McLaren suggested their new Honda upgrade could finally see an upturn in form as Stoffel Vandoorne was seventh and Fernando Alonso ninth. The proof, as is often the case with the Woking-based team, will come when the other teams around them turn their engines up later in the weekend.
The usual lack of grip in the opening session meant numerous drivers struggled under braking, particularly at Turns 1 and 8. Daniil Kvyat, who would finish eighth for Toro Rosso, would choose a different place to have a moment with the Russian sliding into the gravel at Turn 3 before continuing.
With Austria being the shortest lap of the year in terms of time, it's unsurprising to see just 1.4 seconds cover Ricciardo in P5 to Romain Grosjean in P16, of the expected midfield runners that gap shrinks to just eight tenths of a second.
That means a premium is on producing the perfect lap and that showed as Esteban Ocon was only 10th for Force India with the Williams of Felipe Massa 11th, two cars most believe could even challenge for the top six during the weekend.
Massa's team-mate Lance Stroll also highlighted the trickiness of the Red Bull Ring, sliding off at Turn 8 on numerous occasions. Grosjean too had trouble at the downhill right-hander hitting the yellow speed bumps in place to keep cars within track limits and causing a front-left puncture on his Haas.
Two reserve drivers made appearances with Sergey Sirotkin replacing Nico Hulkenberg at Renault and Alfonso Celis taking over Sergio Perez's seat for the first 90 minutes.
Both would be some way off the midfield pace in 17th and 18th, but they wouldn't be the slowest as Sauber once again brought up the field. Pascal Wehrlein, returning to where he scored his first F1 points 12 months ago, was 19th as a possible gearbox issue kept Marcus Ericsson garage-bound.
