Nico Rosberg shatters the silence on track and he's slipped himself into a cheeky a set of ultra soft tyres. Plenty of clean air out there for the German.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

It’s summer, so it’s driver market silly-season time. We have spent quite some time over the last couple of days on this website exploring the latest situation, including in Allan McNish’s column.

The big question remains - who will partner Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, with incumbent Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Valtteri Bottas and Romain Grosjean all apparently in the frame?

The back of the grid teams traditionally take bit longer to sort themselves out, but it seems at least one seat at Haas in 2017 may already be settled. Esteban Gutierrez dropped a fairly heavy hint on Thursday that he was staying, when he said: “I know pretty much where I’m going, so…” The Mexican is not known to have any other options, so Haas it would appear to be.”

With a lull in proceedings on the track, and all the action in the garages, here are the standings.

Image source, Rex Features

Max Verstappen has been on the radio, complaining that the yellow kerbs on the outside of the last two corners are dangerous.

It's where he lost his end plate earlier.

Past or present - who would be in your fantasy F1 line-up?

Julian Hutchings: Gilles Villeneuve and Ayrton Senna in a championship fast Ferrari has to be a fantasy line up!

Nick Whitton: Mika & Kimi in 1999 McLaren with Schumi & Vettel in the 1999 Ferrari - 2 countries, 14 world championships!

David Sullivan: My Fantasy line-up: Eddie Irvine & Felipe Massa w/ Mark Webber as Test Driver – The nearly men of modern F1

The reason Ericsson is being looked at, is because he drifts over the line while entering the pits and that forces Daniel Ricciardo to take aversive action and go on to the kerb.

Marcus Ericsson is being investigated for crossing the pit line.

Image source, Getty Images

This man is in P3.

Can he have his cake and eat it?

Not if he carries on going wide in the penultimate turn, as he's just done.

Careful as you head into the pits lads, you have to avoid Max Verstappen's end plate, which is strewn on the entry to the pits.

He lost it going wide and saw it torn off on the kerb.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Sauber have had a tough time for the last couple of years, really struggling to make ends meet. But things are looking up this weekend. It appears that they are on the verge of sealing a deal with a new investor - which we first mentioned here on BBC Sport back over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. That should allow them to look at the future with a bit more confidence.

It's worth noting that last year's fastest lap, set by Nico Rosberg, was 1:11.235.

Rosberg has gone quickest today with a 1:08.166.

Lewis Hamilton almost causes chaos. He locks up and goes for a spin that takes him on to the gravel and back on to the track again.

Romain Grosjean comes flying around behind him and, quite rightfully, panics, and puts his Haas into a spin as well.

The tyres used from this session will be binned, so no worries on that front.

Image source, Rex Features

After a couple of warm-up laps, Lewis Hamilton has set the tone. He goes 1:08.808 and is currently the quickest man in Austria.

Wait, not any more.

Nico Rosberg jumps to the top by going half a second quicker.

Not ones to shirk away from a national stereotype, Red Bull have forced, I can only assume through a threat of removing meal privileges, their drivers to don lederhosen garb.

If they were to stand against a brown wall it would like they're torso-less.

Image source, Rex Features

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

As ever, McLaren-Honda’s progress is a subject for discussion and both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button said they expected a slightly better weekend after the difficulties of Canada and Baku.

“It’s probably similar to Canada in terms of power needed,” Button said, “but you run a lot more downforce so we should be in better shape and should be in the fight for points. Also we are good in braking.”

Alonso pointed out that “on organisation and chassis side we are comparable to the top teams, which is a good sign. We don't need to solve several problems, we just need to solve one”. That one, of course, is the Honda engine. Was he pushing Honda as hard as he could to make progress? He smiled. “You should be in the debriefs. Apart from punching them I cannot do anything more.”

Max Verstappen still tops the time sheets, he's improved to a 1:10.099.

Bottas, Rosberg, Hulkenberg and Massa follow.

Worth noting that Hulk's Force India team-mate Sergio Perez is sitting this session out, and reserve driver Alfonso Celis is in the car. He's in P8.

After his shenanigans this morning, Vettel has gone out sans the new halo device.

Our man Allan McNish is stalking the pits and has snapped the safety device propped up against the garage wall.

It's been a minging morning for Sebastian Vettel.

The German was slow to get out of the garage because of some tinkering. It turns out he had a gear box change overnight and will suffer a five-place grid penalty this weekend.