Audi Revolut F1 Team completed a solid Friday of practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. Under the baking Styrian sun, with air temperatures well above 30C, the team set out to discover its new updates package, as well as the behaviour of car and tyres in the hot conditions.

Nico Hulkenberg and Paul Aron, deputising for Gabriel Bortoleto as part of the young drivers' FP1 programme, completed their programme without major interruptions; in the afternoon, with Gabriel back in the car, the team were able to focus on the remainder of the Friday plans, with both drivers gaining valuable mileage in their R26s.

With conditions expected to remain sunny and hot for the rest of the weekend, today's data will prove valuable to set up the cars for tomorrow's qualifying, as the team targets their place in the top ten.

Nico Hulkenberg: "It was a straightforward Friday with no major issues. We worked through the planned programme, learning more about the tyres, the car balance and the usual areas we focus on during practice. Overall, it has been a solid day, and we will analyse everything overnight ahead of tomorrow.

"Today was also my first experience with the new update package. It is always difficult to make direct comparisons from one circuit to another, but the initial feeling was positive. We have gathered some useful information and now the focus is on understanding the data further and making some progress overnight."

Gabriel Bortoleto: "It was a decent session for me. The feeling in the car seemed positive: obviously, having sat out FP1 meant I had to adapt to things pretty quickly, but I think looked okay overall. We are bringing some upgrades this weekend and it looks like they're doing their job, but it's still early for a final verdict: we'll have a clearer picture tomorrow once we've had time to analyse all the data gathered from today.

"The margins are really tight, so it will be all about finding the right balance, putting together a clean lap, and feeling confident with the car. If we can do that, I think we can be competitive in qualifying."

Paul Aron: "It was great to be back in an F1 car and, as always, it's a real pleasure to drive these machines. I enjoyed my previous FP1 outing in Barcelona, so I was looking forward to getting back behind the wheel here, even though we knew the conditions would be challenging with the high temperatures. Overall, the session went well, and we completed the planned programme. I was happy with the pace on the medium tyre, while we weren't able to put in a representative soft tyre lap in our first run due to an issue and didn't have enough time for another attempt due to the red flag. But that's part of running a busy Friday programme. The most important thing is that we completed all the test items and gathered good data. I'm grateful to everyone at Audi Revolut F1 Team and Alpine for this opportunity and I wish the team the best for the remainder of the weekend."