Australian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Lando Norris leads an extremely tight session, interrupted by a red flag

You had to be an early bird to follow the return of F1 to the land of kangaroos! At 2:30 am in France, the time of this first free practice session was very early, or late depending on how you see it. If you prioritized your sleep, no need to worry: Motors Inside followed this first session for you!

The course of the session

Fernando Alonso gave the green light for the Australian weekend on the famous Albert Park circuit. Very quickly, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in 1:20.866. Just like his teammate George Russell, he complained about a too long brake pedal.

Lance Stroll, on medium tires, set the fastest time, almost instantly beaten by Lando Norris in 1:20.667.

Charles Leclerc was the first to put on the soft tires, and this very early in the session: barely 5 minutes after the green light. The range of tires used for this Grand Prix is the softest offered by Pirelli. The 2 Red Bulls imitated him a few minutes later. Sergio Perez took advantage of this to set the provisional best time. He battled for the top spot in the session with the Monegasque driver, and they exchanged the top 2 times several times…. Until Max Verstappen set the record straight with a time of 1:18.670, leaving the competition more than 4 tenths behind. Apart from these 3 drivers, the entire field was equipped with medium tires.

Niko Hülkenberg was suffering from a floor problem on his Haas, which he deemed too low and scraping the ground too much at the Australian circuit. Fernando Alonso had a nice scare at turn 10: going wide, he paid a brief visit to the gravel trap, without consequences… or so it seemed at first. Indeed, he had to return to the garage to change his floor following this off-track excursion.

Mercedes was expected after a very complicated weekend two weeks ago in Saudi Arabia. Unsurprisingly, the Silver Arrows struggled on the fast corners of the track. On medium tires, the Mercedes were in 13th and 14th provisional place halfway through the session…

Improvements and… the red flag is out!

Yuki Tsunoda snuck into second place in the standings on medium tires, less than four tenths behind Max Verstappen. Lando Norris was the fourth driver to switch to the red tires: best lap time beaten in 1:18.564. Yuki Tsunoda switched to the softest tires and improved his previous time to come back within 57 milliseconds of Lando Norris.

For his return after his appendicitis surgery, Carlos Sainz achieved the 9th time 8 tenths behind the McLaren driver.

Alex Albon hit the wall at turn 8. He reassured everyone on the radio by indicating that he was fine. His car stopped on the track, and the numerous debris forced the marshals to bring out the red flag. He lost his car on the kerb before finishing his race alongside the wall. An accident at high speed, as it occurred in the very fast sequence of turns 6, 7, and 8.

It was the first red flag of this year in Australia, just a reminder that during the race last year it was waved 4 times!

The session resumed 9 minutes before the end, 10 minutes after the Williams accident.

A session ending with a lot of mistakes

Lewis Hamilton, still struggling with his Mercedes, cut through the lawn at the exit of the first corner after missing his braking point. Everyone started on soft tires, all drivers were improving their lap times. Carlos Sainz climbed up one position to reach 8th place. Sergio Perez missed his second-to-last corner, despite showing signs of improvement. Max Verstappen went wide at turn 10, also giving him a good scare. The 2 Mercedes cars climbed up to 8th and 9th place on soft tires.

At the end of his last lap, he climbed up to second place, just 18 hundredths behind Lando Norris. An extremely close session as the top 6 were separated by less than a tenth! Yuki Tsunoda set the 5th fastest time. The 2 Alpines did not perform miracles but didn’t finish in last position either: Esteban Ocon posted the 15th fastest time, with Pierre Gasly in 17th, 1 second off the pace.

See you in a few hours to follow the second practice session starting at 6am. For now, the suspense is complete, and several single-seaters could claim to secure the pole position on the Albert Park track in Melbourne.

The ranking of the session: