Australian GP: Free Practice #1 - Re-Cap & Times

AUSTRALIAN GP - FREE PRACTICE #1 - RE-CAP & TIMES

    Mercedes topped the first practice session of the 2017 season and it was Lewis Hamilton on top with a 1:24.220. This is over 3 seconds faster than the quickest time of FP1 last year. Bottas was second with a 1:24.220.

    Red Bull was close behind, taking 3rd and 4th place on the time-sheets. Many speculated that it would be Ferrari up in the top 3 after their quick pace during the pre-season tests. However, it was 5th and 6th for Raikkonen and Vettel respectively. 

    Force India officially revealed their new pink livery in the pit-lane prior to the session. The new livery comes with a new Austrian sponsor: BWT. Sergio Perez finished the session in 10th while rookie Ocon finished further behind in 16th with a 1:27.656.

    Perez's former team-mate, Nico Hulkenberg, finished 9th for his new team, Renault, with a 1:26.183. He's paired up with Jolyon Palmer, who stays with Renault for another year. Palmer finished in 19th and had his session ended early due a 'seal-issue'.

    McLaren has reason to be relieved as they had an overall decent session. Neither car stopped on track or had any severe malfunctions. Vandoorne's car was up in the garage for awhile but both cars got laps in and finished with times on the board; Alonso in 14th and Vandoorne in 20th. Vandoorne also ran aero rakes on his car during the session.

TIMES:

1. Lewis Hamilton - 1:24.220 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain

2. Valtteri Bottas - 1:24.803 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland

3. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:24.886 / Red Bull-TAG-Heuer / Australia

4. Max Verstappen - 1:25.246 / Red Bull-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands

5. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:25.372 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland

6. Sebastian Vettel - 1:25.464 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany

7. Felipe Massa - 1:26.142 / Williams-Mercedes / Brazil

8. Romain Grosjean - 1:26.168 / Haas-Ferrari / France

9. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:26.183 / Renault-Renault / Germany

10. Sergio Perez - 1:26.276 / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico

11. Carlos Sainz - 1:26.450 / Toro Rosso-Renault / Spain

12. Daniil Kvyat - 1:26.514 / Toro Rosso-Renault / Russia

13. Lance Stroll - 1:26.734 / Williams-Mercedes / Canada

14. Fernando Alonso - 1:27.116 / McLaren-Honda / Spain

15. Marcus Ericsson - 1:27.348 / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden

16. Esteban Ocon - 1:27.656 / Force India-Mercedes / France

17. Kevin Magnussen - 1:27.667 / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark

18. Pascal Wehrlein - 1:28.539 / Sauber-Ferrari / Germany

19. Jolyon Palmer - 1:28.585 / Renault-Renault / Great Britain

20. Stoffel Vandoorne - 1:28.695 / McLaren-Honda / Belgium

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Article Written By: Amy Hawk

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