McLaren’s Piastri fastest on first day of F1 season
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished the first day of the new Formula 1 season in first place after Friday’s free practice at the Australian Grand Prix.
The Australian was 0.214 seconds faster than Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, whose teammate George Russell finished third ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished sixth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and 18-year-old British rookie Arvid Lindblad, who had an impressive first day in F1 for Racing Bulls.
Aston Martin, the story of the weekend so far due to major problems with its Honda engine, had a better session after just three laps in first practice.
Fernando Alonso was able to complete 17 laps after missing the entire first session due to vibration issues with his engine, but he was 4.933 seconds off the pace.
His team principal, Adrian Newey, laid out Honda’s problems in two extraordinary press conferences on Friday, explaining how the situation was affecting Alonso and how their engine partner found itself in trouble.
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The second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar and Esteban Ocon of Haas completes the top 10, whose British teammate Oliver Bearman is 11th.
The reported lap times may not accurately reflect the pace, as the top teams all completed their laps at different times in the session – Mercedes being relatively early and Piastri late, when the track would have been faster.
In race simulations later in the session, Mercedes appeared to have a significant advantage over Ferrari, the only other top team to run the same hard tires.
However, Mercedes’ program allowed them to complete many more laps.
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Red Bull and McLaren ran medium and soft tires in their races.
Top 10
1.Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 1:19.729
2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.214
3. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.320
4. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.321
5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.562
6. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.637
7. Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.065
8. Arvid Lindblad (Running Bulls) +1.193
9. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1,212
10. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1,450
