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Australian Grand Prix practice: Lewis Hamilton leads Ferraris

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the opening practice session for Formula 1's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but both Ferrari drivers were within a tenth of Mercedes' world champion

Hamilton had warned that Mercedes faced a clear deficit to Ferrari in pre-season testing, but kicked off Friday afternoon's first running in Melbourne as if it was business as usual.

The five-time title winner set a 1m23.599s around the Albert Park circuit to head Sebastian Vettel by 0.038 seconds, with Charles Leclerc only 0.074s behind in his first grand prix session for Ferrari.

Max Verstappen gave Red Bull and Honda an encouraging start to life together by clocking the fourth-best time, 0.193s off the pace.

Mercedes spent almost all of practice one on top, as Valtteri Bottas became the first frontrunner to set a meaningful time and headed the leaderboard until Hamilton went quickest once the two switched from medium to soft tyres.

Bottas's soft-tyre run left him 0.267s slower than Hamilton and restricted him to fifth-fastest, but it could have been worse after a near-miss down an escape road.

As he approached the penultimate corner, the Finn touched the grass on the outside and went straight on, locking up briefly and then booting the throttle to perform a neat pirouette - barely avoiding the barrier on the outside as his car swung round.

New Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly failed to make the sort of impact as team-mate Verstappen, and lapped 1.3s off the pace in eighth.

That allowed Kimi Raikkonen to hold best-of-the-rest behind the big three, giving Alfa Romeo an early boost on its first grand prix weekend as a full entrant.

Raikkonen was 1.2s off the pace, indicating the midfield group is no closer to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull than before.

Gasly's lack of pace in first practice meant he also ended up behind his old team, Toro Rosso, and the driver he replaced at the Red Bull junior outfit in 2017 - Daniil Kvyat.

The Russian, making his F1 comeback after a year as Ferrari development driver, set the seventh-best time and was only two hundredths of a second slower than Raikkonen.

His new team-mate Alex Albon fared less well on his grand prix weekend debut, setting a respectable 13th-fastest time but causing a red flag when he nosed his car into the barriers on the exit of Turn 1 in the final half an hour.

Haas was considered to be the midfield favourite after testing but Kevin Magnussen was only ninth-quickest, albeit only a tenth behind Raikkonen.

Renault's Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 after losing time early on to an "electronic error".

McLaren and Racing Point had a muted start to the season with its best drivers 14th (Carlos Sainz Jr for McLaren) and 15th (Lance Stroll for Racing Point) respectively.

Those teams were at least latched onto the back of the midfield group, whereas Williams was detached at the back of the field.

Robert Kubica set the team's quickest time but was 4.3s off the pace and a full two seconds slower than the next driver, McLaren's Lando Norris.

Formula 2 champion George Russell ended the session slowest, 0.8s behind team-mate Kubica.

It continues a troubling early 2019 for Williams, which was late to pre-season testing, has lost its chief technical officer Paddy Lowe and made changes to its car design to ensure its legality ahead of the weekend.

Practice one times

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m23.599s - 26
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m23.637s 0.038s 18
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m23.673s 0.074s 18
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1m23.792s 0.193s 22
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m23.866s 0.267s 30
6 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1m24.816s 1.217s 18
7 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Honda 1m24.832s 1.233s 30
8 Pierre Gasly Red Bull/Honda 1m24.932s 1.333s 23
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m24.934s 1.335s 24
10 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m25.015s 1.416s 11
11 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1m25.166s 1.567s 23
12 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m25.224s 1.625s 18
13 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso/Honda 1m25.230s 1.631s 21
14 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 1m25.285s 1.686s 19
15 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1m25.288s 1.689s 26
16 Sergio Perez Racing Point/Mercedes 1m25.498s 1.899s 21
17 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1m25.634s 2.035s 16
18 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1m25.966s 2.367s 31
19 Robert Kubica Williams/Mercedes 1m27.914s 4.315s 25
20 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1m28.740s 5.141s 25


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