Australian GP: Sainz leads Ferrari 1-2 in Practice 1

Carlos Sainz led a Ferrari one-two in the opening practice session at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday.

For the drivers, it was a first chance to try out the revised layout at Albert Park with five corners having been reprofiled and the old Turn 9/10 chicane removed altogether.

Max Verstappen would set the early pace as Red Bull was the only team to solely use the soft tyre in FP1.

However, Sainz would jump to the top when Ferrari also switched to the red-marked compound, finishing over half a second clear of teammate Charles Leclerc in second.

Highlighting how much faster the circuit now is, the Spaniard’s 1m19.806s was six-tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton’s pole time in 2019 with plenty more time to come.

Sergio Perez took a while to get going as he completed aero runs initially before losing a piece of bodywork around the final corner, leading to a red flag.

The Mexican though improved to third late on, this after a second red flag caused by Sebastian Vettel, who had an engine problem in his first session of the season after missing the opening two races with Covid-19.

Verstappen dropped to fourth, eight-tenths behind Sainz in the second Red Bull. Lando Norris took fifth as McLaren made a solid start to the weekend.

Esteban Ocon was sixth, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the lead Mercedes. While home favourite Daniel Ricciardo finished almost three-tenths behind teammate Norris in eighth.

Fernando Alonso claimed ninth despite a spin at the tightened Turn 11, as Valtteri Bottas completed the top 10 for Alfa Romeo.

Yuki Tsunoda was 11th, half a second faster than AlphaTauri teammate Pierre Gasly in 14th.

George Russell was only 12th and had a spooky moment coming up behind a slow Red Bull on the new even faster approach to what is now Turns 9 and 10, the high-speed chicane.

Vettel was 13th and may be in trouble with the stewards, who are investigating him for “entering the track without permission”.

At the back, the two Haas cars made a slow start as Kevin Magnussen, who is suffering from sickness, was 16th and had a trip through the gravel at Turn 3.

While teammate Mick Schumacher, back in the car for the first time since his crash in Jeddah, was last 4.5s off the pace.

Full results from FP1 can be seen below: