It has been an unusual first practice session compared to what we are used to, given the absence of the public in the stands to avoid the risk of spreading the Coronavirus.

The first free practice session of the Austrian GP, however, has ended with the fastest lap signed by Lewis Hamilton, with the time of 1:04.816. Behind him, teammate Valtteri Bottas, detached only of three tenths of a second. Third place then for Max Verstappen, further back compared to the two Silver Arrows, with the time of 1:05.418.

Sainz, Perez, Norris, Albon, Ricciardo, Magnussen and Leclerc complete the top ten.

More problems apparently for Ferrari, that did not shine in this first free practice, with Leclerc that ends only tenth and Vettel in twelfth position.

The two Mercedes, with the new completely black livery to support the Black Lives Matter movement, appeared the be the most fit, unlike Ferrari and Red Bull who struggled a bit more. Hamilton remains the man to beat even in this unusual season that will host less races because of the problems caused by the Coronavirus epidemic.

In this first free practice session, great attention was reserved for Mercedes' DAS mechanism, which had already been criticized already in the Barcelona tests. Both Hamilton and Bottas, however, already in this first free practice session have clearly already began to use this mechanism to straighten the tires. No other team seems to have opted to mount this mechanism on their single-seaters, despite for example Mattia Binotto's statements of February, when he stressed that if the DAS would have been considered legal, Ferrari was going to utilize it as well.

The two Mclaren of Sainz and Norris also seemed to be in great shape, as well as the two Racing Point of Perez and Stroll. These could be the two best equipped teams in this 2020 to be able to fight for the fourth place in the constructors championship.

The second session of free practice will start soon at 15pm.

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