F1: Sainz Jr. leads Ferrari 1-2 in opening practice for Australian GP

Carlos Sainz Jr. turned a lap of 1m19.806s to lead opening practice of the Australian GP F1 race in Melbourne in his #55 Ferrari.

Sainz was followed by his #16 Ferrari teammate, and current point leader, Charles Leclerc by 0.571s as Ferrari clearly appears to be the dominating car so far this weekend with its revised under tray.

So it is advantage to Ferrari in this first session, as F1 returns to Melbourne.

Sergio Perez was 3rd quick for Red Bull, 0.593s behind the leading Ferrari

Max Verstappen was a distant 4th in the #1 Red Bull, 0.820s behind Sainz Jr.

Lando Norris rounded out the top-5 for McLaren – better news for McLaren than of late.

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest Mercedes in 7th, 1.221s behind and ahead of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.

There were two Red Flags in the session, one to pick up a piece of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull and the 2nd for the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel who may have lost an engine.

Other than Vettel’s mechanical woes, that was a relatively trouble-free session there. Plenty of laps, a couple of spins and an awful lot learned.

Practice 1 Results