Australia – Free Practice 1: Carlos Sainz dominates Leclerc and Pérez

Australia and Melbourne are back on the calendar Formula 1 for the first time since 2019 on a since-modified Albert Park route. This new version of the circuit was inaugurated this Friday by Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), first to sign a timed mark. The drivers wasted no time for this first session on a resurfaced track and all went out to discover it from the first moments of this first hour of driving of the weekend. After less than ten minutes, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) was already at the top of the timesheet in 1:21.625, a time achieved on soft tires.

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The reigning world champion improved his time around ten minutes later to 1:20.909, pushing back Lando Norris (McLaren) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) by almost a second, while his teammate lost a piece on the start-finish straight, causing a short red flag. The lap record so far was 1:20.486, set by Lewis Hamilton in 2019. The modifications to the circuit were to lead to an improvement in the time of five seconds. The Dutchman got closer and closer to this record by signing a 1:20.857 27 minutes from time.

Vettel did not finish the session

In a session in which not much happened during its first half hour, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) was the first to complete a lap faster than the Red Bull driver, in 1:20.825. Kevin Magnussen (Haas), sick a little earlier, had a little scare while visiting a gravel trap, without any further consequences. Fernando Alonso (Alpine) had a spin in the third sector while Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) took first place in 1:20.325. Sainz was then the first to go under the minute twenty with a lap completed in 1:19.806.

Back after a month early due to Covid-19, Sebastian Vettel could not finish this first session of the weekend, his Astron Martin stopping at the side of the track fifteen minutes from the end. The German once again played the firefighter on duty on his car, while a new red flag was waved. The session resumed for the last ten minutes where the ranking hardly changed apart from Sergio Pérez, the Mexican stealing third place from his teammate.

Carlos Sainz thus pocketed this first Free Practice session of the weekend ahead of Charles Leclerc and Pérez. Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas completed the top 10.

Meet at 8 a.m. French time for the second Free Practice session of the day.