George Russell followed up his victory in Canada with a fast start to the Austrian Grand Prix weekend as the Mercedes driver topped first practice ahead of Max Verstappen.

World championship leader Oscar Piastri was third fastest, with McLaren team-mate Lando Norris watching on from the pitwall as Irishman Alex Dunne participated in his first F1 FP1 session. Dunne sits top of the F2 driver standings and impressed on his F1 debut, ending the session in fourth and just 0.069s behind Piastri.

That means there are opportunities for teams to use FP1 as a driver development session for a “rookie” driver, and McLaren announced on Monday they will do just that. Alex Dunne, a member of the team’s drive development program,