Melbourne, FP1: Hamilton tops opening practice in Australia

Hamilton fastest as 2017 season begins

By Franck Drui

24 March 2017 - 03:35
Melbourne, FP1: Hamilton tops opening

Lewis Hamilton went quickest in the first practice session of the new Formula One campaign, finishing more than half a second clear of new team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The three-time world champion ended the session at Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit with a best time of 1:24.220, set on ultrasoft tyres, to beat Bottas, who moved to Mercedes from Williams at the start of this year, by 0.583 seconds.

Apart from the Mercedes pairing, no other driver ran with the purple-banded Pirelli tyres during the session and Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo used the red supersoft compound to take third spot on the timesheet. The home favourite set a best lap of 1:24.886 to finish 0.666 adrift of Hamilton’s pacesetting time.

Ricciardo was followed by team-mate Verstappen who finished a second off the pace after reporting gearbox synchronisation problems early in the session.

Ferrari, frequently the class of the field during pre-season testing, had a low key session, with fifth-placed Kimi Räikkönen heading team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Räikkönen set a best time of 1:25.372s to finish just over 1.1s behind Hamilton. Vettel was a tenth further back in sixth.

Felipe Massa was seventh for Williams on his return from retirement, followed by Haas’ Romain Grosjean and new Renault signing Nico Hulkenberg. The four were, however, separated by just four hundredths of a second. Force India’s Sergio Perez completed the top 10 with a time of 1:26.276, which put him a full two seconds off the P1 pace.

Carlos Sainz was 11th ahead of Toro Rosso team-mate Daniil Kvyat, while 13th place went to 18-year-old rookie Lance Stroll who enjoyed smooth and incident-free start to his F1 career.

After a disastrous pre-season testing period, McLaren looked better placed in the opening session in Melbourne, with Fernando Alonso taking P14. New team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was held in the garage for almost an hour at the start of the session, however, and he finished in last place having completed just six laps.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeLaps
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:24.220 22
02 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG 1:24.803 25
03 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:24.886 19
04 Max Verstappen Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:25.246 19
05 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:25.372 16
06 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:25.464 10
07 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:26.142 28
08 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:26.168 20
09 Nico Hulkenberg Renault F1 1:26.183 15
10 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:26.276 28
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso Renault 1:26.450 24
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Renault 1:26.514 25
13 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:26.734 29
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 1:27.116 18
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:27.348 30
16 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:27.656 23
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:27.667 19
18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber Ferrari 1:28.539 22
19 Jolyon Palmer Renault F1 1:25.585 6
20 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 1:28.695 14

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