F1 GP Australia, Free Practice 1: Hamilton opens the dance

We find him where we left Lewis Hamilton. There, in front of everyone else. With the best time of 1:29.725, achieved on soft tyre, the Mercedes driver prevailed ahead of the two Red Bulls respectively of Kvyat e Ricciardo, with the Russian trailing by just over 4 tenths. Hulkenberg e Verstappen complete the top five positions, while Rosberg he is sixth. No time trial however Hag e Sainz, with the Spaniard stopped at just three laps. A session punctuated several times by rain and wind, with several drivers involved in spins and deviations in the gravel, without however requiring the intervention of the red flag.

News – Green light in pit lane and Nico Rosberg leading the way in this 2016 World Championship. The German uses intermediate tires - the track is wet in some places after an intense overnight storm - and he also sets the first time of the year, 1:44.037 . Shortly afterwards Hamilton overtakes him by 3.2s. The tires are intermediate for both Mercedes drivers.
After the first thirty minutes from the start, Raikkonen's Red car took the lead in 1:40.754, on intermediate tyre.
We're starting to move on to slicks. Daniel Ricciardo with the medium tires thus takes the lead in 1:34.007, Kvyat places himself behind him. Hamilton is on the soft tyres, as are the two Williams, but in the meantime the rain has arrived again at Albert Park. Alonso placed behind the two Red Bulls, also with the yellow compound, while Raikkonen, Hamilton, Rosberg, Palmer and Magnussen completed the top times.

A brief moment of pause and then Button and Verstappen break the silence, when the first forty minutes have passed after which the first set of used tires must be returned. Meanwhile, Toro Rosso takes fourth position and the rain has stopped falling. Gutierrez complained of some power problems but managed to get into ninth place and shortly after improved to seventh place.

Thirty minutes after the end of this first session only 12 stopped the clock: Ricciardo, Kvyat, Alonso, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Gutierrez, Button, Grosjean, Rosberg, Palmer and Magnussen.
While the sun makes a timid appearance, Verstappen's Toro Rosso spins between turns 6 and 7, but promptly manages to recover.

For the final minutes the grid turns yellow with the soft tires and so the ranking quickly comes to life. Hulkenberg takes the lead in 1:31.325, ahead of Verstappen and Ricciardo. Hamilton takes the lead in 1:30.364, while Ricciardo is second. Vettel and Sainz are still without a time. The rain returns to dictate the law and thus ruins the last minutes of the session. Only Hamilton took advantage of it before the track got too wet and managed to get down to 1:29.725, while Kvyat overtook his teammate who ended the session in the gravel when the checkered flag waved.

F1 GP Australia – Times, results and laps Free Practice 1