The Spaniard reached the 1m19.806s to unexpectedly break the existing lap record set in the previous configuration, a 1m20.486s as posted by Lewis Hamilton on his way to pole in 2019. Sainz’s reference point in a soft-rubbing set came shortly after Leclerc’s start, just for Monegasque to go off-track at turn 1. He ran through the gravel to reconcile his tires and the next lap, giving Sainz the lead as Sergio Perez beat Max Ferstappen for third. Perez was the first driver to go to the temporary Melbourne track, where in 2020 the race was canceled late amid the then outbreak and the first wave of COVID-19. Mexico’s RB18 used C5 soft tires and an aircraft behind the front axle to evaluate the new wing plates. He was ousted from the pitlane by Valtteri Bottas and a host of fellow C3 mid-tire runners, led by Lando Norris, Zhou Guanyu and Aston Martins as Sebastian Vettel returns having lost the first two laps in Bahrain and post-Saudi Arabia COVID. Norris became the early pacemaker as he was the first driver to post something on a racetrack, with the McLaren driver chalking 1 m25.009 after four minutes. He was quickly joined by MCL36 team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian who was missing at 0.13s as Bottas crossed the line another six inches behind the Alfa Romeo C42. Verstappen then climbed to the top of the timers as he initially ran on soft tires fitted, such as Perez, the Dutch runner at 1 m23.101s as Leclerc finished fourth in hard tires. But the Red Bull driver then connected the Pirellis to the red bolted walls with 1.4 seconds clean, Verstappen ran over the line at 1 m21.625s after 11 minutes. Leclerc responded to the white-walled tire, stopping the clock just three-tenths of a second slower before Verstappen found another half-second and then another two-tenths the next time to lower the benchmark to 1m20,909s. That put him about nine tenths ahead of Norris as Leclerc split McLarens into third place. Perez’s car then threw some debris as it ran over the exit curbs from the last corner. This triggered a short red flag of 90 seconds after 21 minutes, so that the carbon fiber could be cleaned. Sainz reappeared in the tough combination to fall just 0.3 seconds off Verstappen’s soft tire, while the Vettel C5’s last attempt was 0.7 seconds behind as he climbed to third place against Perez and Hamilton. Verstappen then started another soft tire push-up to do a few inches, improving once again with a 1m20.857s, but quickly scored a 1m20.825s from Leclerc after 25 minutes – Ferrari’s top driver jumped in the optimal C5. As the Red Bull and Ferrari protagonists swapped positions at the top, Verstappen pulled a 1m20.626s from his car to take first place before Leclerc responded with 1m20.377s to break the lap record. Sainz soon reduced it even further to 1m20.325s, then Leclerc’s blunder in Turn 1 paved the way for Sainz to improve his 1m19.806s without fear of a response from his opponents. With Leclerc limited to 1 m20.377 before the Ferrari pair finished the session with a hard tire, Leclerc bouncing back through the gravel, Perez was third late to lead the Red Bull attack, although 0.5 second of pace. Verstappen was fourth against Norris and Esteban Ocon, while Hamilton ran seventh against Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso, the Alpine driver made a mistake in turn 3 and also hit the kitten. Bottas finished in the top 10 against AlphaTauri and George Russell’s Yuki Tsunoda, while Vettel finished 13th. The four-time champion was forced to miss the last 10 minutes of the session, as it was the cause of the second red flag. He was pulled over at the exit of turn 10 and reported an engine problem, as in scenes that did not resemble the start of his car fire in tests in Barcelona, smoke came out of the back of the Aston. Haas’s promise for the start of the season returned only at 18 and 20. Kevin Magnussen had the measure of Mick Schumacher, despite the fact that the returning Dane suffered from nausea – he did not help when he went off the road at turn 3 when he locked and he had to control his pace to keep the car off the wall. Read also:
