Hamilton leads the way in Melbourne's opening practice session

©WRI2

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton comfortably led the field in the first free practice session of the year at Melbourne's Albert Park, the reigning world champion clocking in 0.551s clear of his closest rival, team mate Valtteri Bottas.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen ended the 90-minute session third, some 0.745s off Hamilton's fastest lap, while Kimi Raikkonen led the Ferrari squad in P4 from Sebastian Vettel in fifth and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in P6.

Australian Grand Prix - Free Practice 1

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:24.026s		27
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:24.577s	+ 0.551s	29
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:24.771s	+ 0.745s	26
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:24.875s	+ 0.849s	23
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:24.995s	+ 0.969s	22
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:25.063s	+ 1.037s	25
7	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:25.730s	+ 1.704s	24
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:25.896s	+ 1.870s	16
9	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:25.922s	+ 1.896s	23
10	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:26.482s	+ 2.456s	15
11	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:26.494s	+ 2.468s	25
12	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:26.536s	+ 2.510s	25
13	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:26.583s	+ 2.557s	25
14	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:26.605s	+ 2.579s	30
15	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:26.636s	+ 2.610s	30
16	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:26.767s	+ 2.741s	26
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:27.035s	+ 3.009s	13
18	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:27.745s	+ 3.719s	16
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:27.964s	+ 3.938s	28
20	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:28.853s	+ 4.827s	28

The first practice session of the year started under Melbourne's blue sky, with air temperatures at 25°C and track temps at 38°C.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was the first man to take to the track, followed by Haas' Romain Grosjean and Sauber's Marcus Ericsson, while the last car to emerge was the Mercedes of reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Twenty minutes and a series of installation laps later, drivers got down to business Red Bull's local hero Daniel Ricciardo laying down a marker, but Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas quickly posted the fastest times on Pirelli's ultrasoft tyre.

At the 30-minute mark, Hamilton jumped to the top with a 1m25.694s which put him 0.313s clear of Max Verstappen, but the Dutchman eventually claims P1.

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Meanwhile, McLaren was nowhere to be seen despite the fact that the opening session was an important one for the Woking-based outfit as its MCL3 is equipped with an upgrade package which needed to be put through its paces.

Both cars remained stranded in their garage, with their crew working frantically on an apparent exhaust issue affecting the orange machines.

Behind Hamilton, rivals appeared to be closing in but the Brit went faster still on the ultrasoft rubber to keep the contenders at bay, including his team mate sitting in P2.

After over an hour of running, Fernando Alonso finally emerged to post the 14th best time, some 2.6s off the pace. The Spaniard pushed on however to slot in P8, while team mate Stoffel Vandoorne pulled himself up to a promising P10.

The tight mid-field battle held its promise, with only a few tenths of a second splitting the competitive group, but Haas confirmed its early dark horse status with Romain Grosjean finishing FP1 best of the rest in P7.

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Michael Delaney