John N
The formula one weekend kicked off with the Scuderia duo of Sainz and Leclerc finishing 1-2 in the first practice session of the weekend. The Spaniard clocked a 1m 19.806s on the Pirelli’s softest tire – the C5, with Leclerc just 0’571s behind, the standings leader having run wide and into the gravel on his first out lap and then backing out on his second attempt.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez – who caused one of two red flags when he lost a piece of bodywork – was third with a late quick lap on the soft, a couple of tenths ahead of teammate Max Verstappen, though the reigning champion set his quickest lap much earlier in the session.
McLaren blew away expectations by revealing a lap time that suggests they might have rectified the front axle issues that have plagued them, with Lando Norris in fifth and home favorite Daniel Ricciardo eighth. Esteban Ocon was sixth, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the leading Mercedes at Albert Park, which features several corner changes for this year and has been resurfaced for the first time since F1 started coming to Melbourne in 1996. Fernando Alonso popped his Alpine into ninth (behind Ricciardo) in the closing stages, with Valtteri Bottas completing the top 10.
In his first outing on the Albert Park race track, Yuki Tsunoda only managed 11th place. Mercedes’ George Russell was 12th, followed by Sebastian Vettel. The latter brought out a red flag late in the session when his Mercedes-powered Aston Martin lost power with just 18 laps on the board. It was a frustrating end to a session with the German hoping for plenty of mileage after missing the first two races with covid-19.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was 14th, ahead of Zhou Guanyu – one of four drivers, along with Tsunoda, Nicholas Latifi, and Mick Schumacher, who hasn’t driven Albert Park – 15th. Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin 16th, with Alex Albon the leading Williams in 17th, 1.2s clear of teammate Latifi in 19th. Haas looked off-color after a strong start to 2022 with Kevin Magnussen, who arrived at the track late after experiencing some nausea overnight, 18th, and teammate Schumacher 20th – 4.543s off Sainz’s P1 pace.
The highlight of the session was Sebanstein Vettel riding a scooter around the Albert Park race track to the pitlane.
This is the most iconic end to a practice session we can remember 😅#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/4jPlAZotzd
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 8, 2022
