For the first session of the season in Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo.
For the first time in history, Pirelli brought out the ultra-soft compound to Melbourne’s Albert Park.
Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) was the first driver to head out on track for the 2017 season at midday local time. The drivers are not wasting their time before heading on track except Esteban Ocon whose Force India was stuck in the garage in the early stages of the session. The beginning of the session was devoted to outlaps and most drivers remained in the box.
Rookie Lance Stroll (Williams) was the first driver to head out for a run and set the first laptime in 1:33.380. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) quickly followed but Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) went faster with 1:26.078. The first mistake of the week-end came from Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing) who missed the apex of the first corner. Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) had to delay his first run after an alert on the engine.
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) smashed the fastest time in 1:25.142 while Ocon eventually went out for the first time of the session. Forty minutes into the session, the cars came back into the pits to give the tyres to Pirelli.
Once again, Stroll was the first to head out with forty minutes to go just before Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing). Vandoorne managed to head out on track after the Pirelli break. Nico Hülkenberg (Renault) was forced to step out from his car halfway through the session. With thirty minutes to go, Bottas, Hamilton and Ricciardo were battling over the fastest time, the British man claiming it.
With a quarter of an hour to go, the Ferrari headed out with supersoft tyres without wanting to waste an ultrasoft set in FP1. Most drivers went for race simulations with their tyres used for fastest lap to simulate the start of a race in the top 10.
Lewis Hamilton (1:24.220) set the pace in FP1 ahead of Valtteri Bottas (1:24.803) and Daniel Ricciardo (1:24.884). Verstappen, Räikkönen, Vettel, Massa, Grosjean, Hülkenberg and Pérez completed the top 10.
