Lando Norris set the pace in the opening practice hours of the Australian Grand Prix, with the McLaren driver catching up with Max Verstappen and George Russell, leaving the top nine separated by just 0.209 seconds.
Alex Albon caught the curb at Turn 6, hit the inside wall at Turn 7 and crashed hard, damaging the right side of his Williams before bouncing across the track and onto the left-hand wall, causing it to slide along the wall. The session was red flagged. , spit out debris
Lando Norris wins his first race in Melbourne
Fernando Alonso, driving an AMR24 adorned with aero rakes, left the field for the start of FP1 as track temperatures rose to 32 degrees Celsius and there was almost no wind.
He pitted for a few laps and handed the opening race to Lewis Hamilton, who had declared the previous day that this year's W15 was “no evil sister” to last year's Mercedes, in 1:20.8.
However, teammate George Russell didn't seem to be enjoying it as much, telling Mercedes: “There was a bit of vibration in the steering rack.” He also added that he “has a little long pedal.”
The drivers lapped in a combination of medium and soft Pirellis, the latter being the softest of the C5's, so Lance Stroll took first place, followed by Yuki Tsunoda, and Stroll took first place again. He dropped his time from first place to 1 minute 19.8 seconds. 10 minutes of running.
Nico Hülkenberg seemed concerned that his VF-24 was running too close to the ground, telling his team: “We're smoking boards on the back straight there.”
Recommended by PlanetF1.com
F1 teams embark on upgrades as they chase 'small' gains at Australian Grand Prix
F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates
Charles Leclerc, on soft tyres, set the fastest time after setting purple times in the first two sectors, followed by home favorite Oscar Piastri along with Lando Norris on the timesheets.
Max Verstappen was fifth on his first run, and teammate Sergio Perez had just set the fastest time in a session that looked like the softs would need a lap or two to reach their best. Verstappen then set his fastest time on his second hot lap, clocking a 1:18.670.
Pierre Gasly was back in the pits doing extensive work on his Alpine A524, but 20 minutes into the session Alex Albon was doing a bit of aero testing as well as Alonso, so he had yet to record a lap time. Ta.
Alonso said there was a moment when he went through the gravel at Turn 10 and “lost the car a little bit.” As a result, Aston Martin needed some time in the pits to change the floor.
After completing 13 laps on medium tires, Tsunoda pushed his RB into the fight for the lead, mixed in with the soft tire runners, and missed Verstappen's P1 time by 0.390 seconds.
Meanwhile, Hamilton's Mercedes was bouncing significantly and Norris told his McLaren to check the floor as his McL36 also made contact with the ground. Norris then moved into first place with a 1:18.5 on his first flying lap in the series C5.
Asked if the car was okay after a huge snap of oversteer, Russell told Mercedes it was “okay” and Valtteri Bottas added his name to people eating gravel during a spin. Then Alex Albon crashed at turns 6/7, bringing out the red flag. /8.
Albon lost his rear on the rise of Turn 6, hit the inside wall with his front right at Turn 7, then crossed to the left and hit there as well.
“It's okay,” he told Williams, adding, “I'm sorry,” but his Williams right side definitely wasn't okay. Regarding his assessment of Norris' crash, he told McLaren: “There's a lot of debris.”
The session resumed with nine minutes remaining, with Hamilton going off the track at Turn 1, Carlos Sainz, who had had a quiet start to the season, lost his footing, and Verstappen went a little wide at Turn 10, falling back from the start. P1 time. “I pretty much hit rock bottom there,” the triple world champion reported.
The session ended with Norris in first place, 0.018 seconds ahead of Verstappen, and Russell in third place. There was a 2/10 difference between the top nine.
times
1 Lando Norris 1:18.564
2 Max Verstappen +0.018
3 George Russell +0.033
4 Charles Leclerc +0.035
5 Yuki Tsunoda +0.057
6 Sergio Perez +0.078
7 Lance Stroll +0.103
8 Carlos Sainz +0.122
9 Lewis Hamilton +0.207
10 Oscar Piastri +0.354
11 Daniel Ricciardo +0.710
12 Alexander Albon +0.879
13 Kevin Magnussen +0.925
14 Logan Sargent +0.955
15 Esteban Ocon +0.997
16 Nico Hulkenberg +1.040
17 Pierre Gasly +1.058
18 Fernando Alonso +1.152
19 Zhou Guanyu +1.425
20 Valtteri Bottas +1.450
Read next: “I'm not stupid” – Carlos Sainz will miss the Australian Grand Prix if necessary