"The car felt competitive from the outset," Mercedes driver hail their W17's performance in Spielberg

Mercedes enjoyed its most encouraging Friday at the Austrian Grand Prix in several years as Kimi Antonelli topped both practice sessions and George Russell consistently featured near the front, giving the Brackley-based team confidence that it can fight for pole position at the Red Bull Ring.

Antonelli delivered an outstanding performance throughout the opening day, setting the fastest lap in both FP1 and FP2 to establish himself as the benchmark heading into Saturday.

The young Italian began his weekend by topping the morning session with a 1:07.796, narrowly edging teammate George Russell by just 0.040 seconds, before improving further in the afternoon to record a 1:07.014 and once again finish at the top of the timesheets.

It marked one of Antonelli's strongest Fridays of the season and reflected a day in which he immediately felt at one with the W17.

"It's been a clean and productive day for us. From FP1 onwards, I've felt comfortable in the car, which gave us a good platform to work from as we built through the sessions.

"The hot conditions will continue to make things quite challenging, particularly in terms of tyre management. Keeping the tyres in the right working window without overheating is important, so that's an area we'll continue to focus on.

"We've gathered a lot of useful information, but there's still work to do and the picture will likely evolve overnight. We'll analyse everything in detail and focus on making the right improvements ahead of Qualifying."

Russell also enjoyed a competitive start to the weekend, finishing second in the opening practice session with a lap of 1:07.836, just fractions behind Antonelli.

Although his second practice session proved less straightforward, with an untidy qualifying simulation leaving him sixth on the timesheets with a best lap of 1:07.637, the Briton remained encouraged by both the car's underlying pace and Mercedes' long-run performance.

"It's been a solid day overall and a good place to start the weekend. The car felt competitive from the outset, and we've got a solid base to work from, but with the margins so tight, it's clear a few teams are going to be in the fight.

"From my side, there are still a few areas to improve. It's clear there's performance to unlock and those are the kind of steps we can focus on overnight.

"The long-run pace looked strong in the conditions we've seen today, which is encouraging. Tyre management is going to be important this weekend, and that is something we will continue to keep on top of throughout the weekend.

"We've got a good foundation to build on and, with a few tweaks, I'm confident we can take a step forward and put ourselves in the mix for Qualifying."

Mercedes' strong Friday came after months of preparation aimed specifically at improving its performance at the Red Bull Ring, a circuit where the team has struggled in recent seasons.

Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained that Friday's running had provided encouraging evidence that the W17 has made meaningful progress compared to its predecessors.

"In recent years, we've failed to get the car in a good position on this track. After a lot of preparation for the past few months, it was interesting to see how the W17 was behaving today. Aside from a few tricky corners and a tendency to run the rear tyres hot, the altitude adds additional challenges to the power unit and cooling system."

The team spent much of FP1 evaluating test items before shifting its focus toward optimising the car's balance for the remainder of the weekend.

"Our morning session was packed with test items. We managed to make good progress and were able to complete most of the usual race weekend work. We identified a few balance issues which we worked on into the afternoon session."

While Antonelli's afternoon concluded with another session-leading performance, Shovlin acknowledged that Russell's final flying lap did not fully reflect the Mercedes' potential.

"The track was slightly cooler in the afternoon, and Kimi finished the day on a positive note although both were able to do solid long runs. George didn't quite get the single lap together in the afternoon but that wasn't a concern in the morning. We've got plenty of data to work with overnight to put that back in a good place."

Despite the encouraging results, Mercedes is remaining cautious as it prepares for qualifying, with Shovlin emphasising how closely matched the leading teams appear to be.

"It looks quite close with the competition in terms of single lap and long run and it's hard to say exactly where we sit but compared to the last few seasons here, it seems to be a good improvement and we'll do our usual overnight work searching for that bit more pace."