Australian Grand Prix FP1: Norris tops interrupted session, Albon hits wall

Lando Norris headed the times in an interrupted first free practice for the Australian Grand Prix, edging Max Verstappen by 0.018 seconds.

Norris, using soft tires, climbed to P1 with a 1m18.564s, fractionally less than four-hundredths of a second quicker than Charles Leclerc’s 1m18.599s, around the halfway point. Yuki Tsunoda was only 0.057s behind the Briton in third, while Sergio Perez was a further 0.021s adrift in fourth.

With 20 minutes left in the opening session of the weekend, Alexander Albon’s Williams hit the wall at Turn 6 and stopped at Turn 8, bringing out the red flag. After an 11-minute interruption, the session resumed, with several drivers switching to the medium tires for the remainder of the practice.

Before the red flag, Lance Stroll was fifth for Aston Martin, while Verstappen was only sixth with a 1m18.670s, just ahead of George Russell.

Earlier incidents saw Fernando Alonso and Russell have moments at Turns 9 and 10 respectively, while shortly after the resumption, Lewis Hamilton ran wide at Turn 2.

In the closing minutes, Carlos Sainz, recovering from appendicitis, improved on softs to slot in front of Russell. However, the Mercedes driver lifted his personal best on the final lap, jumping ahead of Leclerc and into third overall. Verstappen, on a fresh set of softs, set the second-fastest time, just 0.018s shy of Norris’s benchmark.

Hamilton advanced to ninth using old softs, while Oscar Piastri, racing on home soil, slipped to tenth as Daniel Ricciardo took P11. Both Hamilton and Verstappen reported possible floor damage after running wide at Turn 10.

Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas combined for 44 laps, temporarily propping up the timesheets, with Alonso only managing 18th position.