Charles Leclerc set the pace in the first practice session of the new Formula 1 season, with Lewis Hamilton making it a Ferrari 1-2 in the opening session of the 2026 Australian Grand Prix. Leclerc’s late lap threw a marker down to his rivals, 0.469 seconds faster than the rest of the field as Formula 1 enters a new era with changed regulations.
Max Verstappen finished third, but for most of the session, he had traded fastest times with Leclerc, before Ferrari’s last run put both their drivers at the top. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Isaac Hadjar kept up with the four-time world champion with the fourth fastest time.
18-year-old Briton Arvid Lindblad (also of Swedish and Indian heritage) was perhaps the surprise of the session, as the rookie driver set the fifth-fastest time in his Racing Bull, with teammate Liam Lawson down in thirteenth.
McLaren had a problematic FP1, with Oscar Piastri losing power early on and could only manage a time 1.075 seconds behind that of Leclerc, placing him sixth. World champion Lando Norris meanwhile, suffered from gearbox problems and could only run seven laps, which saw him only manage a nineteenth-fastest time.
Mercedes were tipped to be title-contenders ahead of the season, and while George Russell and teammate Kimi Antonelli were more than a second off Leclerc’s pace in seventh and eighth, fuel loads and engine modes could have played their part, with this being a practice session.
Aston Martin barely got through any laps as the team, plagued with engine problems since pre-season testing, could only manage three laps with Lance Stroll before an engine issue, while Fernando Alonso was unable to run at all. This was reportedly a separate issue than the vibrations of the Honda power unit potentially causing ‘permanent nerve damage’ to their drivers, as team principal Adrian Newey admitted before the race.
Aston Martin’s issues saw the newly-formed Cadillac team avoid the bottom spots, although Valtteri Bottas (17th) and Sergio Pérez (20th) could only record times that were about four seconds off the pace.
Audi’s pre-season reputation as the best-of-the-rest appeared to be true, as Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg finished ninth and tenth. Esteban Ocon was close behind in his Haas, with teammate Oliver Bearman finishing fourteenth. Carlos Sainz (12th) was 2.056 seconds off the pace in his Williams, with teammate Alexander Albon finishing with the fifteenth-fastest time. Franco Colapinto (16th) and Pierre Gasly (18th) offered no new hope for Alpine, looking well off the pace.
