Lando Norris Leads First Practice for the Australian Grand Prix

Lando Norris of McLaren topped the first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix, setting a time of 1m17.252s. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc followed closely behind, with Sainz leading for Williams earlier in the session. The action was disrupted twice by red flag stoppages.

Early Lead and Red Flag Interruptions

Leclerc led the first quarter of the one-hour session with an early benchmark of 1m17.880s. The opening 15 minutes featured both Red Bull drivers experiencing wayward moments – Liam Lawson tapping the wall on approach to Turn 9 and Max Verstappen clipping the gravel exiting Turn 6.

After a lull in action, the session was briefly halted due to debris on track, possibly from Jack Doohan’s Alpine, which had been amongst the cars dragging gravel onto the track at the reprofiled Turn 6. The session resumed just before the halfway stage.

Second Red Flag and Resumption of Action

Verstappen headed straight back out on the softs and duly went quickest with a 1m17.696s. The rest of the frontrunners were already set to complete their first flying laps on the softs much later, with Leclerc slotting into second by 0.060s just after Sainz had gone quickest for Williams with a 1m17.401s.

However, the session was then suspended when Oliver Bearman crashed heavily after going off exiting the rapid Turn 10 right – the Briton smashing the right-hand side of his car against the outside barrier before the wreckage bounced back across the track. The action only resumed with 11 minutes remaining.

Final Laps and Results

Oscar Piastri did get a flier in with fresh softs on the other McLaren just afterwards, with the home hero going 0.269s slower than Sainz to run third, before Norris demoted him with an effort just 0.117s down on Sainz, but with the quickest time in the final sector.

In the final minutes, Norris shot to the top of the times with a 1m17.252s, while Alex Albon put the second Williams sixth behind Verstappen’s best effort. George Russell, who finished seventh as the top Mercedes runner, spun off at Turn 4 just before the finish, putting his right-side wheels on the grass after exiting Turn 3.

Fernando Alonso, Isack Hadjar and Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10, while Lewis Hamilton was only 12th for Ferrari and his replacement at Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, was just 14th.