Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a four-tenths advantage over the field in opening practice at the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday.
After drivers scrambled for any grip on the resurfaced track last year, the cars were sticking like glue to the Istanbul Park circuit thanks to the measures taken ahead of this year’s race.
That meant lap times were significantly faster with Hamilton’s 1m24.178s on soft tyres a new lap record, almost nine-tenths faster than Sebastian Vettel’s 2011 pole time.
During the session, however, it was announced the Mercedes driver will take a 10-place grid penalty after qualifying for a new internal combustion engine component of the power unit.
Max Verstappen was second but struggled to optimise tyre performance and balance as Red Bull tried to adjust to the high-grip conditions.
Ferrari enjoyed a strong start with Charles Leclerc half a tenth behind the white-liveried RB16B in third and Carlos Sainz, who will start P20 due to a brand new power unit, fifth with Valtteri Bottas sandwiched between them.
Esteban Ocon was a strong sixth in the Alpine, seven-tenths slower than Hamilton.
Behind the Frenchman was a four-tenth gap to Lando Norris in seventh ahead of Pierre Gasly in eighth for AlphaTauri.
Fernando Alonso was ninth with Sergio Perez rounding out the top 10 in the second Red Bull.
Full results from Practice 1 can be seen below:
