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# McLaren's eye-catching debut in Russell-led Austrian GP FP1
- URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/eye-catching-mclaren-debut-in-russell-led-austrian-gp-fp1/
- Published: 2025-06-27T12:40:54.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-27T15:00:00.000Z
- Description: George Russell followed up his Canada win by topping first Austrian GP practice, but the most attention-grabbing aspect of the session was F2 points leader Alex Dunne going fourth on his F1 weekend debut
- Author: Matt Beer
- Tags: Formula 1, #australian-grand-prix, #mclaren, #mercedes, #george-russell

George Russell followed up Canadian Grand Prix victory by topping first Austrian GP Formula 1 practice, but the most attention-grabbing aspect of the session was Formula 2 championship leader Alex Dunne going fourth on his F1 weekend debut.

McLaren junior Dunne stepped into Lando Norris's car for the session and on his soft-tyred qualification simulation he was just 0.069 seconds off his F1 points-leading team-mate Oscar Piastri as they took third and fourth.

Russell was quickest on both hard and soft tyres, ultimately topping the session with a 1m05.542s lap that was 0.065s ahead of Max Verstappen's Red Bull and 0.155s ahead of Piastri.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2025/06/f1_2025_R11_FP1.png)

Russell's team-mate Kimi Antonelli had been close to him on hards but didn't string good laps together on softs and fell to 11th, while Yuki Tsunoda's struggles continued as he lapped 0.7s off team-mate Verstappen in 17th.

Ferrari made a muted start: its rookie Dino Beganovic couldn't emulate F2 rival Dunne's heroics as he went 18th in his first F1 practice appearance after Bahrain in April, and Lewis Hamilton was in and out of the pits early on having been informed of a gearbox problem, and had the lowest lap count of anyone on the way to an eventual ninth.

But Ferrari-powered Sauber made a bright start: Gabriel Bortoleto took sixth behind Pierre Gasly's Alpine.

> Whoa Fernando 😮  
>  
> Alonso, readying for a push lap, puts his foot down into the final corner and goes spinning off track 😵‍💫[#F1](https://twitter.com/hashtag/F1?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=the-race.com) [#AustrianGP](https://twitter.com/hashtag/AustrianGP?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=the-race.com) [pic.twitter.com/PVF40hpXYf](https://t.co/PVF40hpXYf?ref=the-race.com)
> 
> — Formula 1 (@F1) [June 27, 2025](https://twitter.com/F1/status/1938569439823147348?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=the-race.com)

Fernando Alonso had a dramatic spin out of the final corner and over the grass while preparing for a flying lap, joking that it was the "worst out-lap we could possibly do" and expressing relief to have got it out of the way in FP1.

## FP1 times

1 George Russell (Mercedes) 1m05.542s  
2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.065s  
3 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.155s  
4 Alex Dunne (McLaren) +0.224s  
5 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +0.238s  
6 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +0.332s  
7 Alex Albon (Williams) +0.404s  
8 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.475s  
9 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.557s  
10 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.568s  
11 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.588s  
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +0.598s  
13 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.618s  
14 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.628s  
15 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +0.647s  
16 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +0.704s  
17 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +0.720s  
18 Dino Beganovic (Ferrari) +0.827s  
19 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +0.968s  
20 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.196s