Australian GP: Free Practice #1 - RE-CAP & TIMES

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

    Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 in the first free practice session of the 2018 Formula 1 championship.

    The last man to leave the pits at the start of the session, Hamilton quickly jumped to the top of the times.

    Improvements from the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo dropped Hamilton to third, but he soon returned to go 0.428s faster than Verstappen.

    He later improved again to set the benchmark at 1m24.026s.

    Team-mate Valtteri Bottas came closest to the reigning champion, but was half a second adrift of Hamilton.

    Verstappen finished the morning third quickest, ahead of the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. Ricciardo dropped down to sixth by the end of the session.

    Romain Grosjean in the Ferrari powered Haas finished best of the rest. He took seventh quickest, 1.704s slower than Hamilton and 0.735s slower than Vettel. His team-mate Kevin Magnussen could only manage 17th quickest and completed just 13 laps.

    McLaren started the season with a mechanical problem. Both Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne suffered an exhaust issue which limited their running. When the pair did manage to get out, the finished eighth and 10th quickest, with Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jnr putting himself just ahead of Vandoorne.

    Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out on the top 10, setting a lap time just 0.012s slower than Vandoorne. He finished ahead of fellow rookie Sergey Sirotkin, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon.

    Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez took 15th and 16th, ahead of Magnussen and Brendon Hartley.

    The Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc completed the order.

TIMES:

1. Lewis Hamilton - 1:24.026 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain
2. Valtteri Bottas - 1:24.577 / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland
3. Max Verstappen - 1:24.771 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands
4. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:24.875 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland
5. Sebastian Vettel - 1:24.995 / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany
6. Daniel Ricciardo - 1:25.063 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Australia
7. Romain Grosjean - 1:25.730 / Haas-Ferrari / France
8. Fernando Alonso - 1:25.896 / McLaren-Renault / Spain
9. Carlos Sainz - 1:25.922 / Renault-Renault / Spain
10. Stoffel Vandoorne - 1:26.482 / McLaren-Renault / Belgium
11. Pierre Gasly - 1:26.494 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / France
12. Sergey Sirotkin - 1:26.536 / Williams-Mercedes / Russia
13. Nico Hulkenberg - 1:26.583 / Renault-Renault / Germany
14. Esteban Ocon - 1:26.605 / Force India-Mercedes / France
15. Lance Stroll - 1:26.636 / Williams-Mercedes / Canada
16. Sergio Perez - 1:26.767 / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico
17. Kevin Magnussen - 1:27.035 / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark
18. Brendon Hartley – 1:27.745 / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / New Zealand
19. Marcus Ericsson - 1:27.964 / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden
20. Charles Leclerc - 1:28.853 / Sauber-Ferrari / Monaco 

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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring

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