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LIVE: Free Practice 1 in Australia! *CLOSED*

LIVE: Free Practice 1 in Australia! *CLOSED*

15-03-2019 00:00 Last update: 02:44
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

We're live for the first of the 105 Formula 1 sessions of 2019 - it's Free Practice 1 in Australia, live from Albert Park in Melbourne! We'll get our first real look here of what the cars look like as the season gets going. Who will look strongest at the start of the year? The session starts at 01:00 BST or 21:00 EST for our American readers.

*FP1 Live Blog below*

One of the things we'll look out for is the race pace of the teams at the front of the grid. It's unlikely that any team will do qualifying simulations in FP1, as that usually takes place in FP2, but a lot of long runs will be done in the upcoming session, showing the race pace each car will have on Sunday.

One of the other things that stood out to us when looking at the footage from pre-season testing in Spain is how planted the Ferrari was on the road compared to the Mercedes when each car went for its flying lap. Sebastian Vettel barely had to do any correcting on his steering, showcasing how glued to the road the SF90 really is. It's not like the Mercedes was all over the place, and Lewis Hamilton was only 0.003 seconds off Vettel's time, but the car's behaviour certainly looked a bit more nervous. Let's see if this holds true in Melbourne!

Williams

The other thing we'll look out for is at the back with Williams. A lot of data from Barcelona suggests the Grove-based team will be at the bottom of the pile again in 2019, but a strong outing here in FP1 could potentially change our minds. Can George Russell and Robert Kubica squeeze some fast laps out of the FW42?

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