F1 LIVE | First free practice for the 2023 Australian Grand Prix

It is the third round of the 2023 F1 season. With this liveblog, you won't miss anything from the first F1 session at Melbourne's Albert Park. Free practice one is about to start for the Australian Grand Prix. 

FP1 Liveblog: Australian Grand Prix

The third round also promises to be the third instalment in the internal battle at Red Bull Racing between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. It is still early in the season and things are not yet heated between the Red Bull drivers, but the competition does not seem to be able to make any dangerous attacks yet.

Aston Martin seem to have the best chances due to their strengths in the slow and medium speed corners. Ferrari are expected to be closer than they were in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, whilst Mercedes will be doing all they can to improve. It seems as though they will not introduce upgrades this weekend. All of the above will be confirmed when the cars role out onto the circuit for the first time in FP1. 

Best of the rest 

Behind the top four, Alpine are in no man's land, after which the rest of the teams are very close for the final points. Haas scored a point in Jeddah, Alfa Romeo and Williams did so in Bahrain. Alpha Tauri and McLaren are furthest away from the points so far, although Oscar Piastri did make it to Q3 in Jeddah and Yuki Tsunoda twice finished narrowly outside the points with P11. If the top five teams finish, all these teams will have to do without points. If anyone at the front drops out, it will be a fight for the scraps that remain.

At Albert Park, Michael Schumacher is still the record holder with four wins. Ferrari are also the most successful team with nine wins in total. Charles Leclerc won last year's edition. Of the current drivers on the grid, Lewis Hamilton is the only one with two wins behind his name. Besides Leclerc, Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas are the only other drivers with a victory in Melbourne. Verstappen only has one podium to his name in Australia.