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The first session of the weekend started in Australia at the Albert Park Circuit as many fans around the world set early alarms ahead of this weekend’s racing.
The drivers were quick out onto the track with Carlos Sainz from Ferrari being the first out, closely followed by the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu.
It was a special moment for Oscar Piastri, as he took to the track for the first time as a Formula One driver in his home race.
The Red Bulls are set to look even faster this weekend following some upgrades to the car which if they work as well as the team hopes could create even more of a lead for the current constructor leaders.
Kevin Magnussen took a brief trip over the gravel in the opening minutes of the session after locking the rears into the entry of the corner of turn three, but kept his cool and got the car back under control and back onto the track, no real damage done.
As we reached the halfway point of the session, it was a Red Bull 1-2 with championship leader Max Verstappen holding that top spot on the timesheets with a time of 1:18.790 with Sergio Perez just behind.
Yuki Tsunoda took his AlphaTauri over the gravel which saw him take a trip back to the pits and didn’t return for the rest of the session.
A red flag was brought out in the session moments later due to the lack of GPS meaning race control and teams did not know where their drivers were on track, which led to a lot of traffic on track.
The track went green with just under 15 minutes left on the clock with the majority of drivers heading back onto the track, some completing flying laps and others opting for longer runs.
Max Verstappen brought out a yellow flag in sector one after a moment at turn four which saw him spin his Red Bull but soon was back on his way.
A second red flag was brought out as Logan Sergeant pulled over his Williams to the side of the track bringing an early conclusion to the first practice session of the weekend, the session did not resume.
As the session concluded it was Ma Verstappen who came out on top followed by Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez in third.
Just behind the top three were Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc who concluded the rest of the top five.
Here’s how the top looked:
