Hamilton tops opening practice in Australia
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| 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 |