Verstappen leads Hamilton in twice red-flagged first practice

Verstappen’s 1m18.790s led the way ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who jumped up the order late on after initially struggling with the handling of his W14, and running adrift of his team-mate George Russell during the early exploratory laps on the harder tyres.

Sergio Perez took third in the second Red Bull ahead of Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso, although the former’s best time was set on the mediums.

Then came Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who had an off-track moment midway through the session after the rear of his SF-23 snapped right running through the Turns 1-2 complex.

Several drivers had similar issues, with AlphaTauri‘s Yuki Tsunoda‘s off the most dramatic as he fully spun and nearly flipped over when his AT04 hit the gravel trap deep in the runoff.

Heavy wind gusted across the Albert Park track at this point all through FP1, which likely contributed to the many issues the drivers were having once they began to press on the soft compound tyres to get their eyes in for early qualifying simulation preparation.

Lando Norris took seventh for McLaren ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Russell and Lance Stroll, who rounded out the top 10 in the second Aston and was the only other leading car runner to set their personal best on the mediums.

Although he led the way, Verstappen’s session was not smooth, as he regularly missed the Turn 1 apex and at one point had to catch a big oversteer snap going through the quickly following Turn 2.

In the closing stages, he climbed too far over the Turn 4 exit kerbs while pushing on softs and spun off sideways – at the same spot on the Melbourne track where Sebastian Vettel crashed his Aston in the 2022 race here last year after making a similar mistake.

Just past the halfway point, the session was suspended when the GPS system used by F1 went down and several drivers had near misses due to their squads being unable to inform them of other cars approaching with big speed differences.

This led to a nine-minute red flag, with a second stoppage following in the closing minutes as Logan Sargeant stopped his Williams at the exit of Turn 11 due to a suspected electric issue.

Full Australian GP FP1 results: