Daniel Lloyd and Stian Paulsen were the only two drivers who completed a lap at the Red Bull Ring in less than 1 minute and 37 seconds during the first Free Practice session. With two minutes left on the clock Lloyd jumped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:36.755 and then Paulsen moved into the second position as he was clocked at 1:36.944.
Luca Engstler, who had set the provisional fastest lap twice (1:37.500 and 1:37.33), was demoted to third, more than half-a-second off Lloyd’s pace.
Lloyd said: “I think this is the first time I’ve been P1 in any session, which is always nice, but there are definitely some improvements we can make to the car and myself as well. I haven’t been here for about ten years, so I’m quite rusty in places, but it’s nice to know that we’ve got some time to find. I’ve had a tough couple of rounds for different reasons but I’ve been really quick; I think it’s important that we show our pace, but the most important thing this weekend is that we get some results. Okay, it’s Free Practice and we know everyone runs different tyres but it’s all good and the best way to start the weekend.”
Until Lloyd set his fastest lap, the gaps were pretty close, with 20 cars covered by less than one second.
Maxime Potty and Gianni Morbidelli were classified fourth and fifth, while Davit Kajaia, Tom Coronel, Nélson Panciatici, Natan Bihel and Olli Kangas rounded off the top ten. Viktor Davidovski was placed a brilliant 11^th ahead of Jessica Bäckman, Alex Morgan and Gilles Magnus.
Current championship leader Julien Briché set only the 23^rd fastest lap, as all the Peugeot cars struggled; Aurélien Comte was the fastest of the pack, in 20^th position, 1.3 seconds off Lloyd.
Josh Files struggled too, as an electronic issue prevented him from using the full power and ranked in 22^nd position.
The second free practice will take place at 17:35.

Practice 1
1. 1:36.755 – Daniel Lloyd (Brutal Fish Racing Team, Honda Civic FK7)
2. 1:36.944 – Stian Paulsen (Stian Paulsen Racing, CUPRA)
3. 1:37.334 – Luca Engstler (M1RA Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N)
4. 1:37.509 – Maxime Potty (Team WRT, Volkswagen Golf GTI)
5. 1:37.579 – Gianni Morbidelli (WestCoast Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI)