Australian GP FP1 Results: What Happened In Free Practice 1

Your Sports Illustrated report of the Australian Grand Prix Free Practice 1.

The Australian Grand Prix weekend has kicked off with the first free practice session coming to a close. 

The race in Melbourne is set to be the fastest yet for the city as the FIA has added a fourth DRS zone.

Standout Moments

It's another weekend of racing and it seems to be another weekend of Max Verstappen complaining about mechanical issues on his RB19. According to the Dutch driver, there are still hesitations from the gearbox on downshifts. Unsurprisingly, however, the Red Bulls maintain their lead, barely leaving the top two places on the timesheet so far this Friday. 

Despite the Bulls' seemingly perfect setup, even they aren't immune to bouncing around the Australian track as multiple teams struggle with controlling vertical movement over the street circuit. William's Logan Sargeant specifically complains of bouncing as his car bottoms out on the tarmac.

Lewis Hamilton had a code brown moment in the first half of FP1, perfectly exhibiting the lack of grip created by the W14. This forced him back to the garage for adjustments to the front suspension setup as they continue to hunt for more traction. Teammate George Russell also noticeably struggled on soft tyres, not managing to match Hamilton's lap time on mediums until over 30 minutes in.

AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda scooped up some gravel in an almost-crash as he went into Turn 1 too hot, throwing his car off the track in spectacular fashion. In fact, we saw more drama in this Practice Session than every other session so far with drivers struggling to keep their cars on the tarmac. It turned out this could be due to a lack of GPS, eventually causing a red flag. 

After the green flag returned, Ferrari was the only team to not send their cars back on-track as they adjusted the rears of the SF-23s. But before this, they showed solid performance this morning with the Constructor safely being the second fastest from what we've seen so far. 

FP1 came to an end as Logan Sargeant's car shut off, causing a red flag with 4 minutes left.

Conclusion

Drivers are obviously struggling so far with traction as they battle with the cambers of the Albert Park track. Red Bull is still showing dominance, with Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Mercedes being in similar positions to the first two races of the season.

It's very early, so FP2 will give us more indication as to where the teams are pacing this coming weekend. 

Australia FP1 Results

1. Verstappen
2. Hamilton
3. Perez
4. Alonso
5. Leclerc
6. Sainz
7. Norris
8. Gasly
9. Russell
10. Stroll
11. Albon
12. Piastri
13. Hulkenberg
14. De Vries
15. Sargeant
16. Ocon
17. Tsunoda
18. Bottas
19. Zhou
20. Magnussen