Hamilton tops opening practice in Australia

Hamilton snuck in a quick lap in the dry
Hamilton snuck in a quick lap in the dry

With rain on and off throughout the opening practice session for the Australian GP at Albert Park in Melbourne, not all drivers had a chance to run slicks, and two drivers – Vettel and Sainz didn't even bother to put in a timed lap.

Lewis Hamilton in the superior Mercedes turned the fastest lap of 1m29.725s on slicks to lead the session. However, there is a lot more to come from the Mercedes once the track really dries up. The question on everyone's mind is whether Ferrari has caught up or whether Mercedes has in fact widened their performance advantage. Given they have ex-Ferrari designer Aldo Costa from Italy designing their car, don't be surprised if Mercedes has widened the gap.

The Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo were 2nd and 3rd with Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen (after a quick spin) rounding out the top-5.

Results

POS. NO. DRIVER TEAM TIME BEHIND LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:29.725 +0.000s 14
2 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:30.146 +0.421s 14
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:30.875 +1.150s 13
4 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:31.325 +1.600s 8
5 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:31.720 +1.995s 14
6 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.814 +2.089s 11
7 14 Fernando Alonso Mclaren 1:33.060 +3.335s 11
8 22 Jenson Button Mclaren 1:33.129 +3.404s 16
9 11 Sergio Perez Force India 1:33.370 +3.645s 6
10 20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:34.060 +4.335s 13
11 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:34.550 +4.825s 6
12 19 Felipe Massa Williams 1:34.679 +4.954s 6
13 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:34.796 +5.071s 7
14 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:35.477 +5.752s 12
15 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:37.956 +8.231s 6
16 94 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:40.401 +10.676s 6
17 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.754 +11.029s 10
18 21 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:41.780 +12.055s 8
19 88 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:43.372 +13.647s 7
20 8 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:43.443 +13.718s 6
21 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 8
22 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 3