Carlos Sainz has ended the opening practice session of the Australian Grand Prix weekend on top of the timesheet, setting a 1:19.806 for Ferrari.
The Spaniard was over half a second ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who ended up second and third respectively.
Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull, eight-tenths down on Sainz.
Formula 1 returned to the Albert Park Circuit for the first time since 2019, as the 2020 and 2021 rounds were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lap times were almost four seconds faster compared to FP1 in 2019, with the track and cars undergoing dramatic changes since the last event.
Lando Norris was fifth in his McLaren car, ahead of sixth-place Esteban Ocon. Lewis Hamilton was the leading Mercedes challenger in seventh, heading local favourite Daniel Ricciardo.
Fernando Alonso suffered a spin at Turn 11 in the final 20 minutes of the session but ended the session in ninth, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
The session was interrupted by two red flags, the first of which was caused by a piece of debris that fell off a Red Bull and landed on the racing line.
The second came in the last 15 minutes of the outing, when Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who has returned to the grid this weekend after missing the first two rounds with Covid-19, came to a stop on the circuit with a Power Unit issue.
There were several impeding incidents noted throughout the session, with two (Stroll, Magnussen and Sainz, Zhou) being placed under investigation.
George Russell was 12th in the second Mercedes, behind AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
After his on-track stoppage, Vettel ended up 13th, with team-mate Lance Stroll in 16th. Lodged between the two Aston Martins was Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu.
Williams’ Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi were 17th and 19th respectively.
Kevin Magnussen missed morning media duties due to feeling unwell but was back in the car for FP1, ending up 18th. His team-mate Mick Schumacher ended the 60-minute outing in 20th.
The on-track action in Melbourne will resume with FP2 at 16:00 local time.
[motorsport_result id=’83829′]
