First Free Practice Results 2022 Australian F1 GP

Event: Australian F1 Grand Prix
Track: Albert Park Circuit

Sergio Perez of Mexico driving the (11) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit on April 08, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Weather: dry 21.3°C
Tarmac: dry 38.1°C
Humidity: 58%
Wind: 1.6 m/s SE
Pressure: 1021.2 bar

Formula 1 engines finally were roaring around Albert Park in Melbourne again today. After a silence of more than 3 years, today first practice for the Australian F1 GP was run again. F1 was not able to run, due to the corona pandemic.

The Albert Park tarmac has been resurfaced and the layout has been revised a lot to try and make the racing better on the street circuit. A lot of corners where changed and smoothed out. The result is a much faster circuit which now has four DRS zones. The pitlane also got 2 meters wider and was now 14 meters wide and the speed limit has been raised from 60 km/h to 80 km/h. You can read more about the changes in our Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix preview.

Right after the green light switched on Sergio Perez went out with large aero rakes just behind the Red Bull front wheels. The huge crowd that already came to see FP1 saw the Red Bull team was gathering data on some new upgrades, including a new front wing endplate. Nearly all the teams have brought upgraded parts to this race. The Mercedes team was the notable team to have nothing new on their car.

Five minutes into the session the times are already were coming in. Lando Norris topped the leaderboard with a 1:23.066 min on a set of the yellow-marked medium compound tyre. The lap times expected to be five seconds quicker than usual thanks to those track changes, although what is 'usual' when the track hasn't seen meaningful running since 2019.

Six minutes into the session Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll already was complaining he got impeded by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. The incident will investigated after this first practice is finished.

After ten minutes Max Verstappen already fitted a set of soft tyres on the Red Bull and and put in a 1:21.625 min to go fastest.

Thirteen minutes into this FP1, Carlos Sainz was the only driver yet to head out. The Ferrari team seem to be working on his front wing. Reports from the pit lane are that they were trying to run some front wing sensors which they couldn't get working here this afternoon.

Twenty minutes into the session Verstappen improved to a 1:20.909 and drove 3 purple sectors. His teammate Perez lost a part from the back of the Red Bull that ended up on the race line of the start-finish. A red flag was the result to pick up the piece of carbon to seemed to come from the right rear.

Halfway the only driver who didn't clocked a lap time was Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen wasn't feeling well and a few minutes later the Danish driver did put a lap time on the board, but went wide in turn 4 and had a trip through the gravel pit.

Alfa Romeo driver Guanyu Zhou also got blocked. The Chinese driver was impeded by Sainz who now also was on softs and recorded the quickest lap of the session with a 1:20.325. The Ferrari did show a lot fo porposing on the long third DRS zone. When they fix that the Ferrari will even go a lot faster here. In the meantime Alpine driver Fernando Alonso had spun in turn 11 but stayed on the tarmac and could go on.

With 15 minutes to go Vettel's session first practice session of this 2022 F1 season already ended. The Mercedes engine in the back of the Aston Martin gave up already. A second red flag was used for five minutes to recover the car.

The quickest FP1 lap time in 2019 was a 1:23.599 min driven by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.

FP1 Times Table 2022 Australian GP

✅ Check out more posts with related topics: