FP1 REPORT | Verstappen leads Hamilton and Perez through the practice!

Championship leader Max Verstappen held Lewis Hamilton to four-tenths, as the Mercedes driver split the Red Bulls with Sergio Perez rounding out the top three. A quite chaotic session to open the race weekend at Australia, with two red flags thrown out over the course of free practice one.

It was a decent day out at the circuit with temperatures at a comfortable 18 degrees Celsius and wind speeds as 18km/h.

Carlos Sainz was first out onto the circuit, with a fair number following afterwards to begin getting a feel for the track. All drivers were out on mediums and hard compounds, wanting to get some mileage in.

Logan Sargeant was having a tough time, complaining that his car was bottoming out so hard that he wasn’t even able to see clearly. Similarly, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton noticed that his car was bouncing heavily through the circuit.

Kevin Magnussen ran afoul of a gravel trap through turn 3, locking the rears and having to nurse the car back onto the circuit. Later on, he dipped his tyres into the gravel on the exit of turn 10. All drivers continued to push their cars early on to see where the stability and balance were in their cars, around the track. Similarly, halfway through the session, Yuki Tsunoda flew dramatically into the gravel and grass, heavily bouncing and losing some carbon fibre along the way. 

With around 20 minutes remaining, a red flag was thrown out as a technical issue occurred where many of the car’s GPS trackers had gone down, which was causing many of the tight congestion points around the circuit. With just under 15 minutes ago, the session was back underway, with many of the cars now shod in softs and mediums.

Championship and session leader Max Verstappen suffered a big spin through sector one, with the car getting unsettled while travelling over the exit rumble strip.

With four minutes to go, Logan Sargeant pulled over as his Williams suffered a power failure, bringing an early end to the session.

Be sure to join us and the liveblog for FP2 at Albert Park!