Lando Norris headed the times in an interrupted first free practice for the Australian Grand Prix, edging Max Verstappen by 0.018s before a red flag.
Norris, on soft tyres, moved to the top of the times with a lap of 1m18.564s just under four hundredths of a second quicker than Charles Leclerc’s 1m18.599s with half the session to go. Yuki Tsunoda was only 0.057s behind the McLaren driver in third, while Sergio Perez was a further 0.021s adrift in fourth.
With 20 minutes of the opening session remaining, Alexander Albon’s Williams stopped after hitting the wall at Turn 6 and then ending up in the gravel at Turn 8, prompting a red flag. After an 11-minute stoppage, the action resumed, with several drivers switching to the medium tyre for the weekend.
Before the interruption, Lance Stroll was fifth for Aston Martin, while Verstappen – who did a 1m18.670s – was sixth, just ahead of George Russell.
Earlier incidents saw Fernando Alonso and Russell have moments at Turns 9 and 10 respectively, while Lewis Hamilton ran wide at Turn 2 shortly after the resumption.
In the closing minutes, Carlos Sainz jumped ahead of Russell after improving on softs, but the Mercedes driver improved his personal best on his final lap to rise to third ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen, on new softs, set the second-fastest time, just 0.018s shy of Norris’s benchmark.
Hamilton advanced to ninth on his old softs, and Oscar Piastri, racing on home soil, slipped to 10th as a result, with Daniel Ricciardo one place behind. However, both Hamilton and Verstappen reported possible floor damage after running wide at Turn 10.
Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas combined for 44 laps, leaving them at the bottom of the timesheet for now, with Alonso only 18th.