Max Verstappen immediately fulfilled his favorite role during the first practice session for the Australian GP by setting the fastest time. Lewis Hamilton gave Mercedes a somewhat surprising second time, albeit well behind Verstappen.
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After winning the first two races of the new F1 season with Max Verstappen in Bahrain and Sergio Perez in Saudi Arabia, Red Bull was also a huge favorite for the third race in Australia. However, with the Albert Park street circuit, the F1 teams in Australia were presented with a completely different kind of track.
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Even on the third race weekend of the season, the teams and drivers were still trying to figure out how the new cars would react and how they could best be set up. Getting on the track as much as possible and making kilometers was still the message. It was also an extra special race weekend for home driver Oscar Piastri.
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Since Albert Park is a temporary street circuit, the more driving on the circuit, the more grip there is because more rubber is deposited on the track surface. Track conditions evolve enormously throughout the race weekend.
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The lack of grip and pushing the limits of the car and the circuit also means that we see a lot of mistakes and slides by the drivers. This was also the case during the first practice session.
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We also got a red flag during the practice session because there were ‘GPS problems’. A strange situation that mainly meant a loss of time for the teams and drivers. Once the problem was solved, we went full speed again and we saw a spectacular spin from Max Verstappen.
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At the end of the session we got another red flag because Logan Sargeant had to park his Williams F1 car on the side of the track with technical problems. The practice session was not restarted due to lack of time.
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Despite his spectacular spin, Max Verstappen was fastest during the first practice session, followed by a surprising Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes in second place by almost half a second.
More F1 news:– Max Verstappen wants to take revenge in Australia: “I want to win in Melbourne!”– Porsche writes off Formula 1 for the time being: “Our focus is elsewhere”– Lewis Hamilton is determined: “I have no doubts, I will win again!”– Will we soon see a new ‘gender equal’ F1 team on the grid?– VIDEO: Are Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez the new Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in F1?
(F1journaal.be)