Mercedes led the way in opening practice for the Austrian Grand Prix as defending Formula 1 champion Lando Norris and both Red Bull drivers missed out on significant track time.

The Mercedes duo spent the majority of the session at the top of the times and it was championship leader Kimi Antonelli who ended up leading the way, setting a best time of 1m07.796s - around 2.2s off last year's best FP1 time.

George Russell was 0.040s off team-mate Antonelli on his own soft-tyre run midway through the session, suggesting the Mercedes might have a significant early advantage over its opposition at the Red Bull Ring.

But two rivals did get closer in the latter stages of the session; Oscar Piastri ended up third, 0.117s off, with Max Verstappen also within three tenths of a second for Red Bull.

The four-time champion's session was compromised early on by two failed attempts to leave the pitlane - Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies described these as software glitches - meaning it was 20 minutes before he took to the track.

It was another 10 minutes before the sister RB22 appeared, with Isack Hadjar delayed by an engine issue that Red Bull spotted prior to the session. He ended up 12th, 1.685s off the pace with 11 laps completed.

Only Norris completed fewer laps - nine - in the session, as he was delayed by a hydraulic leak aboard his McLaren. Norris nevertheless ended the session in seventh, one second off the pace.

Barcelona GP winner Lewis Hamilton was fifth, close to four tenths off Verstappen's time, as Ferrari began the weekend off the back of its 'big four' rivals. FP1 stand-in Dino Beganovic was ninth fastest in the second car.

The final driver within a second of Antonelli's benchmark time was Arvid Lindblad, 0.930s off for Racing Bulls in sixth.

Cadillac has brought what it calls a "significant" upgrade package to the Red Bull Ring and broke the curfew overnight to "optimise" its integration.

It showed well in FP1 - Valtteri Bottas was 13th, 1.7s off the pace - but the session was not trouble-free, as Sergio Perez spent the majority of the second half of the session consigned to the garage, then ground to a halt on the run up to Turn 3 in the final two minutes of the session - ultimately bringing out a red flag that ended FP1 early.

His troubles meant Aston Martin was spared of occupying the bottom two positions thanks to a late lap from Jak Crawford - one of six rookie drivers to take part in FP1 - but at 3.4s off the pace, his time was still 1.6s off the slowest of the regular drivers, Williams's Alex Albon, as Aston Martin waits to introduce a major upgrade package around the time of the summer break.

Results

1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m07.796s
2 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.040s
3 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.117s
4 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.281s
5 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.665s
6 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +0.930s
7 Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.077s
8 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1.166s
9 Dino Beganovic (Ferrari) +1.258s
10 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.275s
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +1.369s
12 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.685s
13 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +1.725s
14 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.750s
15 Ayumu Iwasa (Racing Bulls) +1.841s
16 Alex Albon (Williams) +1.848s
17 Paul Aron (Audi) +2.141s
18 Luke Browning (Williams) +2.183s
19 Ryo Hirakawa (Haas) +2.697s
20 Jak Crawford (Aston Martin) +3.406s
21 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +3.487s
22 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +3.537s