Scuderia Ferrari HP completed its planned programme during Friday practice for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Spielberg circuit, gathering useful data in both qualifying and race trim.

Across the two sessions, the team focused primarily on fine-tuning the setup of the SF-26, evaluating the performance of the Medium and Soft compounds, all without any significant issues.

Lewis Hamilton and Dino Beganovic were on track in the opening session, the Swede making his second consecutive appearance at the wheel of the SF-26, in line with the regulation requiring each team to run a rookie with no more than two Grands Prix starts on four occasions during the season. Hamilton and Beganovic began the session on Medium tyres, completing 14 laps each. Around 25 minutes from the end, both switched to Softs, on which they set their best lap times of 1'08"461 and 1'09"054 respectively to be fifth and ninth in the standings. In the closing stages, Hamilton returned to the track to run in race trim on the Medium tyres used at the start of the session to complete a long run, while Beganovic carried out a similar programme on the Soft compound. With one minute remaining, the session was brought to an early end by a red flag. Hamilton completed 25 laps, while Beganovic managed 26.

Charles Leclerc was back in his SF-26 for the second session alongside Lewis. They both started on Medium tyres, with Hamilton completing 13 laps and Leclerc 15. They then switched to Softs, setting their quickest times of the day: 1'07"611 for Hamilton and 1'07"855 for Leclerc, which put them fifth and eighth respectively. In the closing stages, both drivers reverted to the Medium tyres to complete some long runs, before Hamilton fitted another set of Softs to do practice starts from the grid. Leclerc completed a total of 35 laps, two more than his team-mate, a team total of 68 laps in the session and 119 over the whole day.

The data gathered today indicates there is still work to do to bring all the elements together and maximise the car's potential. This evening the team will analyse all the data to identify areas for improvement ahead of tomorrow's qualifying session.

Lewis Hamilton: I'd say it was a solid but challenging start to the weekend, with the high temperatures making an already demanding circuit even tougher. The car felt quite positive straight out of the box, but this track is pretty unforgiving, so that even a small balance issue costs you a lot of lap time. We've definitely got some work to do to find the right setup and balance and unlock some performance. It's all about staying focused, understanding where we're losing out and seeing what we can do ahead of tomorrow.

Charles Leclerc: We gathered quite a lot of data today, which gives us useful insight into the areas of our car which we can still work on improving tonight. We were not as competitive as we would have liked to be right now, and our focus is on taking steps forward in refining our performance so that we can challenge our competitors tomorrow.

Dino Beganovic: It's always an amazing feeling to drive a Formula 1 car, especially a Ferrari. The session was very good in general, and I am happy with how it went. At the start of the session, we ran some different tests, to gather as much data as possible for the team. We had a solid run on the Medium tyres, and then went out on Softs. The general balance of the car felt good and I felt I was back into the rhythm straight away, after my last FP1 in Barcelona. A big thank you to Scuderia Ferrari for the trust and this opportunity. I hope to have the chance to get behind the wheel again soon.