How Austrian GP practice unfolded

Lewis Hamilton made a powerful statement of intent as the Formula 1 season finally got under way at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The world champion was fastest in both practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring, leading team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Mercedes have repainted their cars black, a new livery reflecting support for anti-racism and diversity.

The season is starting four months late after coronavirus laid waste original plans and forced a complete re-think.

Beyond eight races in Europe scheduled over the next 10 weekends, the shape of the rest of the season remains in flux, as a result of the differing impact of coronavirus around the world.

Steve D Whittle: So potentially this weekend the black car is worth the most points, then the pink one, then the blue one? Is this really fast snooker?

The red Ferraris will be hoping not.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, 1:04.304)
2. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes, +0.197)
3. Sergio Perez (Racing Point, +0.641)
4. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari, +0.657)
5. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault, +0.668)
6. Lando Norris (McLaren, +0.783)
7. Lance Stroll (Racing Point, +0.831)
8. Max Verstappen (Red Bull, +0.911)
9. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, +0.994)
10. Carlos Sainz (McLaren, +1.048)
11. Esteban Ocon (Renault, +1.111)
12. Daniil Kvyat (Alpha Tauri, +1.139)
13. Alexander Albon (Red Bull, +1.149)
14. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo, +1.304)
15. Kevin Magnussen (Haas, +1.374)
16. Romain Grosjean (Haas, +1.604)
17. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri, +1.712)
18. George Russell (Williams, +1.821)
19. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo, +1.974)
20. Nicholas Latifi (Williams, +2.820)

We wanted someone to shake up the usual top six of both Mercedes, both Ferraris and both Red Bulls and maybe, just maybe, Racing Point's gains might just do that.

Sergio Perez is third in session two, after being fifth earlier today.

Qualifying is tomorrow, so can Perez be near the top again then?

This is Formula 1's home for the next two weeks.

There will be no on-track action in the W Series this year, so it is all about the esports, and you can watch the highlights here.

Stewart: Hopefully these are just practice times and the Mercedes isn't that far ahead of everyone. The 2020 season needs a close Championship race - Hamilton running away with it again won't be good for the sport. And unless it rains next week, Mercedes dominating this weekend and running away with it will just mean that casual viewers don't bother watching next week.

Rimal: If the Ferrari is so uncompetitive for the rest of this mini season could Vettel leave after first eight races - he looks disillusioned with F1.

Jeremiah Kariuki: On long runs, that Silver Arrow looks frustratingly fast!

Remember, both the opening two races of the season are in Austria at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, with race two the same time next weekend.

During lockdown, how, exactly, did Biffy Clyro's lead singer Simon Neil end up teaching Formula 1's Alpha Tauri driver Daniil Kvyat to play the guitar?

Well, because the Russian offered to help get Scottish rocker Neil good enough to compete in one of Formula 1's virtual grands prix.

The pair met up thanks to BBC Radio 5 Live's Guestlist programme to teach each other a few moves from their respective professions, which could lead to a racing debut for Neil - and, who knows, a spot on stage for Kvyat.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, 1:04.304)
2. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes, +0.197)
3. Sergio Perez (Racing Point, +0.641)
4. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari, +0.657)
5. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault, +0.668)
6. Lando Norris (McLaren, +0.783)
7. Lance Stroll (Racing Point, +0.831)
8. Max Verstappen (Red Bull, +0.911)
9. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, +0.994)
10. Carlos Sainz (McLaren, +1.048)
11. Esteban Ocon (Renault, +1.111)
12. Daniil Kvyat (Alpha Tauri, +1.139)
13. Alexander Albon (Red Bull, +1.149)
14. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo, +1.304)
15. Kevin Magnussen (Haas, +1.374)
16. Romain Grosjean (Haas, +1.604)
17. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri, +1.712)
18. George Russell (Williams, +1.821)
19. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo, +1.974)
20. Nicholas Latifi (Williams, +2.820)

Earlier today it was Lewis Hamilton one, Valtteri Bottas two and as the teams go off on their long runs that’s how it is in this session too. Both Mercedes are at least four tenths faster than anyone else.

Ominous signs for the rest already.

One way and another, McLaren have been in the news a lot since the season was suspended following the abandonment of the Australian Grand Prix. Chief executive officer Zak Brown weighed in on the importance of lowering the budget cap, as those talks began to take shape back in the spring.

They were the first team to announce staff being put on furlough - and a redundancy programme has followed. Then they were at the heart of the driver swaps that have seen three of this year’s drivers start the season with teams they know they will be leaving. And most recently there was the question of the cash shortage that has led to legal action against a group of bondholders in the company, in which McLaren said it needed an “urgent” funds injection to keep going this year.

F1 team boss Andreas Seidl says that through all that there was “never a doubt of McLaren not being on the grid next year” and it has been solved this week by a loan from a Bahraini bank. Seidl admitted the last three months have been “a tough period” for the team, and major infrastructure projects such as building their own wind tunnel have been put on hold - for the time being, at least.

But he is optimistic that it has not affected their preparations for this season: “The financial challenges we were in and the measures we took in place quite early, with the pay cuts and people on furlough, which was in parallel with the shutdown didn’t really affect our preparations, we are on course with the plan we set out over winter and we are planning to bring updates regularly from Austria onwards on the car and we are flat out getting next year’ car ready with the integration of the Mercedes power-unit (for 2021).”

Watch BBC Newsreel footage of the British and European Grand Prix on 13 May 1950, designated as the first ever F1 World Championship race.

The race took place at Silverstone in the presence of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, and was dominated by the Alfa Romeo cars.

Earlier today, Ferrari explained what went wrong with their car design that has led them to change tack on aerodynamic direction. Team boss Mattia Binotto said: “(There was) miscorrelation from design to track and we needed to understand it first. From the aero point of view there was come mis-correlation.

"We pushed a lot on our project on trying to seek a lot of downforce but what we develop was too fragile in terms of aero robustness on track. We are trying to take a step back and redevelop. Our hope is to bring some developments in Hungary.

"Hopefully by then we will not address all our issues but a decent step forward in performance by then we can really understand where we are compared to our normal competitors.”

Lewis Hamilton is now on the softs and regains top spot thanks to a 1:04.304, the fastest time of the day so far. Bottas is 0.197 seconds behind, but the leading Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel is six and a half tenths off Hamilton.

Work to do for Ferrari. Mercedes clearing picking up where they left off at the end of 2019.

Raikkonen goes cross-country.

It's a good day so far for Racing Point. Sergio Perez was fifth in the first session and is currently second, while team-mate Lance Stroll is in fifth place in session two.

After the first few laps with the majority on the softs, we have Valtteri Bottas on top thanks to a 1:04.501, Sergio Perez in the Racing Point is second quickest, with Sebastian Vettel in third, four tenths behind Bottas.

Leclerc is also on the softs, but down in seventh, nearly eight tenths off the Finn.