Australia – Free Practice 1: Hamilton Takes Early Lead, Vettel and Leclerc Close Behind

Back-to-school season has begun in Melbourne, and just like during the winter trials, it’s difficult to pick an early favorite!

If Lewis Hamilton secured the fastest time in FP1, the world champion did not crush the competition, still represented by Scuderia Ferrari. As proof, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc completed their fast laps in the same tenth. The SF90 always impresses with its handling, but the W10 is very much in the game, having completely changed between the two weeks in Barcelona.

Under perfectly mild weather conditions (32.2 degrees on the track, 20.6 degrees in the air, and very weak wind), Lewis Hamilton set his best time on his second stint, clocking in at 1:23.589. His teammate Valtteri Bottas had led at the start of the session with a 1:24.679 on medium tires. The Finn finished “only” 5th after flirting with disaster by brushing against the wall in the penultimate corner following a braking maneuver with two wheels on the grass. He was outpaced by the two Ferraris, as well as Verstappen’s Red Bull, which showed a very interesting pace on the soft tires.

The “Big 3” pulls away from the middle of the pack

As last year, there is already a noticeable gap between the front-runners and the rest of the field: exactly nine-tenths between Bottas’ time and that of Kimi Räikkönen, who finished sixth in his new car, the Alfa Romeo, which shows promising performance on a flying lap. Modest in eighth place, 1.3 seconds off the lead, Frenchman Pierre Gasly did not deliver a stellar time for Red Bull, his new employer. He was outpaced by his former car, the Toro Rosso, driven by Daniil Kvyat, who achieved an impressive feat: 7th place on medium tires, unlike his peers, all on soft tires.

The Faenza team nonetheless experienced two major issues: a slow puncture for the Russian driver at the very end of the session, and a spin by Alexander Albon twenty minutes earlier. The British rookie hit the wall exiting the second corner, before stepping on the accelerator again for the straight. He tore off his front wing and caused the first red flag of the season but managed to return to the pits for repairs.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Rookie Alexander Albon spins into the barrier at Turn 2

📻: “Take it easy, take it easy, you have no front wing…”

He gets his wounded Toro Rosso back to the pits, and we’re green again#AusGP 🇦🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/mtnlZBCaku

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 15, 2019

On the side of disappointments, the Renault team starts in the midfield, with a mere 10th place credited to Nico Hülkenberg. The German, however, only completed 11 laps, stuck in the pit for an hour due to an electrical problem. His new teammate is even further back: Daniel Ricciardo in 17th, a full two seconds behind Hamilton.

Williams already dropped

This observation seems more optimistic than that of the Williams team. Although the FW42 seems more balanced than in Barcelona, it is still just as slow. Robert Kubica finishes two seconds behind the first chaser, Lando Norris’s McLaren. His teammate also had a shortened start to his second stint, as George Russell was stopped at the pit exit and brought back to his garage by his mechanics.

At this rate, one might wonder if both cars will finish above the 107% limit at the end of qualifying this Saturday…

The complete standings of these FP1:

Hamilton and Vettel separated by just 0.038s 👀

Our first 90 minutes of fun in 2019 are in the book! Full classification 👇#AusGP 🇦🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/AXG8OjDvkn

— Formula 1 (@F1) 15 mars 2019