photo: Formula1.com
Red Bull picked up where they left off from last race in the first practice session in Melbourne, with Max Verstappen setting the fastest time at 1:18.790. Teammate Sergio Perez clocked in third fastest, .503 behind, but was one of five drivers to set their fastest laps on medium tires compared to everyone else’s soft times. Lewis Hamilton snuck in between the Red Bulls to place his Mercedes second fastest at 1:19.223, while teammate George Russell placed ninth with a time of 1:19.699. Aston Martin continued their strong start, with Fernando Alonso putting in the fourth-fastest time at 1:19.317 and Lance Stroll, on mediums, coming in tenth with a 1:19.766. The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz placing fifth and sixth, respectively, with times of 1:19.378 and 1:19.505.
The session was interrupted by a ten-minute red flag period after a malfunction in the GPS servers, which affected the ability of the teams to alert their drivers to hazards, and was ended four minutes early after Logan Sargeant’s Williams lost power and stopped just inside of turn ten. There were spins from Yuki Tsunoda, who sailed through the gravel trap at turn one and sat out the last half of the session to repair damage, but narrowly avoided a major collision, as well as from Verstappen late as he ran wide and jumped the curb at turn four. Verstappen had complained over radio of issues with both his shifting and the brake setup, but neither turned out to be a factor in the first practice session. Kevin Magnussen ran wide on multiple occasions and, while avoiding a major incident, posted the slowest time at 1:21.147.
Lando Norris found some speed in the McLaren to place seventh with a time of 1:19.536, with his teammate and Melbourne native Oscar Piastri coming in twelfth at 1:19.777. Pierre Gasly’s lap of 1:19.646 was good for eighth, ahead of fellow Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, who was down in 16th with a time of 1:20.175. Williams’ Alexander Albon posted an identical time to Lance Stroll, also on mediums, and was officially listed in eleventh, while Sargeant posted the fifteenth fastest time at 1:20.074 before his car broke down.
photo: Formula1.com
The only other fastest laps set on mediums were the two Alpha Tauri drivers of Nyck de Vries and Tsunoda, who were in fourteenth (1:19.933) and seventeenth (1:20.399). While Magnussen struggled, his Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg came in thirteenth with a lap of 1:19.806. Alfa Romeo Sauber were also toward the back, with Valtteri Bottas posting a 1:20.419 and Zhou Guanyu a 1:20.569, good for eighteenth and nineteenth, but the team was primarily focusing on testing out several part upgrades.
