AUSTRALIAN GP – Lando Norris fastest in FP1 by nearly two-hundredths as Alex Albon writes off his Williams
Lando Norris was fastest in a disrupted first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix, the McLaren driver set an 18.564 putting himself almost two hundredths faster than Max Verstappen. Norris set his fastest time mid-way through the session on the soft tyre, C5, to go fastest before the session was stopped.
Williams driver Alex Albon crashed and wrote off his car when he slammed the car into the wall, the rear tyre broke loose slamming into his gearbox. The British-Thai driver escaped uninjured, but the team has withdrawn his teammate Logan Sargeant as they see Albon as their best chance of points.
The FW44 snapped violently right after he ran hard over the Turn Seven inside kerb, which pitched him rapidly into the wall and then bounced back across the track to hit the other wall and smashing both sides of the car.
This showered debris over a long section of this high-speed blast and the session did not resume until just nine minutes left, once the pieces had been gathered and the Williams removed – Albon having been quickly collected by the medical car but having declared himself “ok”.
George Russell put his Mercedes third in what looked to be a competitive start to the weekend he was a hundred and a half behind Verstappen and two thousandths ahead of Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver was only two thousandths faster than the RB of Yuki Tsunoda, who put in a well-timed lap going two hundredths faster than Sergio Perez.
Verstappen looked quick enough to challenge Norris to top the times but looked to back off on his final attempt, Russell meanwhile was forced to back off during his fastest lap because of an oversteer moment at Clark Chicane (Turns Nine-Ten).
FP1 provided highly competitive with under a tenth between Norris and Perez in the top six. Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin seventh going two hundredths faster than Carlos Sainz. Sainz is returning to racing having missed the last race in Jeddah following an appendectomy, he was a tenth off Stroll and ahead of Lewis Hamilton by eight hundreds.
Hamilton one of serval drivers along with teammate Russell caught out by an oversteer at the Clark, his former teammates Valtteri Bottas spun off and Fernando Alonso also went through the gravel. these moments coming following the red flag.
Oscar Piastri rounded out the top ten going nearly half a second faster than fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo. Albon’s fastest lap before his crash left him twelfth, half a second faster than Kevin Magnussen with his Williams teammate Logan Sargeant eight hundredths behind in fourteenth.
Esteban Ocon was fifteenth nearly a second off the outright pace but was half a tenth faster than Nico Hulkenberg. The Haas split the two Alpine’s as he was nearly two-tenths faster than Pierre Gasly. Fernando Alonso was eighteenth ahead of both Sauber’s with Guanyu Zhou a quarter of a second faster than Valtteri Bottas.
The Aston Martin driver was nearly three-tenths faster than both Sauber’s after missing much of the session after going off and damaging his floor.