Australian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Verstappen starts strong, watch out for traffic

It was on a cloudy day in Melbourne that the first practice session of the weekend began. As soon as the green light turned on, almost all the drivers, starting with Carlos Sainz, took to the track with the hardest tires from the Pirelli range, the hards.

The Spaniard was also the first to set a time of 1:25.314, before being quickly overtaken by Sergio Perez. The Mexican, who was on the medium tires with yellow stripes, sets a time of 1:20.267, ahead of his teammate Max Verstappen, who was the only driver to start the session on the soft tires (C4), followed by George Russell.

After ten minutes of the session, Verstappen took the lead of the leaderboard by setting a time of 1:19.3, two tenths faster than Perez in the other Mercedes, Hamilton’s, who didn’t fail to complain on the radio that he was experiencing bouncing in his W14.

Track excursions in cascade

Kevin Magnussen was the first to make a mistake by locking up his rear wheels and going into the gravel at the exit of turn three. Hamilton, who experienced a major oversteer at turn 9, forced him to frantically correct his direction, while at the same time, Verstappen, who achieved a 1.18.790 lap time, complained about an issue with his rear brakes to his team.

At the halfway point, Norris was finally able to start his program on medium tires, while the majority of the field began on softs. And while some were improving, traffic hindered others. Yuki Tsunoda ended his session with a mistake in the first corner, causing the front of his car to lift off as it skimmed the wall in the gravel. His teammate, Nyck de Vries, hindered Hamilton on a quick lap, while Perez went too wide in turn three.

Two red flags, one of which is for nothing

With just over 20 minutes left in Free Practice 1, the session was interrupted by a red flag due to a problem with the track’s GPS, causing massive traffic issues. With 14 minutes remaining, the drivers were able to get back on track and Norris, taking advantage of the others working on their race pace, moved up to sixth position, behind the Ferraris and just ahead of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

On the other hand, the driver with the number 1, Max Verstappen, spun out while accelerating on the kerb of turn 4 and lost his tires.

Logan Sargeant experienced a problem with his power unit 5 minutes before the end with his Williams, which stopped in sector 3. As a result, the red flags were deployed, prematurely ending the session.

Free Practice 1 Results of the Australian Grand Prix