FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2019: PRACTICE 1/2/3 *** SPOILERS ***

Merc sandbags are leaking.. already .991 up from fp1

 

Merc took off the sandbags?

Red Bull Honda #2 team now?

For a sec, I thought Ferrari was 5 & 6, but that's Raikkonen with the Alfa Romeo lol


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hmm leclerc off

 

Is Checo lifting a little to make the bosses son look good?

 

Well, I'm glad I didn't sign up for the F1 live feed.

FP 1 was nice, but FP2 was awful. What the heck?

 

it had been a long time since scuderia had been so far for a first practice session

 

Is this a replay of 2018? Merc in a different world to the rest....

 

Seems like same ****, different day.

 

The so called driver never fails to deliver.......lol

 

Merc were never in a 'different world' to Ferrari last season...
and Vettel was 5th in Melbourne FP2 last year...and went on to with the race. Not yet time for panic...

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/142129/hamilton-leads-mercedes-dominated-practice-two --

I would hope Ferrari can sort the issues noted by Vettel in particular corners...

----Lewis Hamilton topped second free practice ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix for Mercedes.

Hamilton, using soft Pirellis, edged Bottas into second place by 0.048 seconds with a lap completed just after the hallway mark of the 90-minute session to secure the position.

So great was Hamilton's pace advantage that his timesheet-topping pace on the medium-compound Pirellis in the early stages of the session was quick enough to make sure of first place.

Max Verstappen was third fastest for Red Bull-Honda, eight tenths slower than Hamilton, after opting to delay his performance run to the closing stages of the session.

Verstappen set his time with 15 minutes remaining, having spent much longer circulating on medium rubber than everyone else earlier in the session, before slotting in ahead of new team-mate Pierre Gasly by 0.042s.

Pre-season pacesetter Ferrari had a subdued session, lapping well off the pace early on using medium-compound Pirellis, with Sebastian Vettel complaining over the radio that something felt wrong in Turns 1 and 4.

Vettel later bolted on softs and put in a lap of 1m23.473s to go fifth fastest, subsequently describing the car as "still a bit wobbly" over the radio.

Alfa Romeo newcomer Kimi Raikkonen was sixth fastest, a tenth behind Vettel, and just ahead of the two Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo.

Charles Leclerc was down in ninth, 1.154s off the pace, in the second Ferrari, with Haas driver Romain Grosjean rounding out the top 10.

Leclerc also had a spin late in the session when he lost it on the exit kerb coming out of the Turn 4 left-hander. He was able to continue.

Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat was 11th fastest ahead of the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen, with Racing Point's Lance Stroll 13th.
McLaren driver Carlos Sainz Jr also left it late to complete his performance run and was the penultimate driver to set his time.

It put him up to 14th place, just ahead of Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi - who had a spin on the entry to Turn 15 late in the session after touching the grass.

 

BBC analysis of Practice so far - https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/47579031

Lewis Hamilton headed a Mercedes one-two in second practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton beat Valtteri Bottas by 0.048 seconds but the two were 0.8secs clear of the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.

Ferrari, who appeared to have the quickest car in pre-season testing, were fourth with Sebastian Vettel.

The suspicion is that the Italian team were hiding their true pace ahead of qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Vettel was 0.8secs slower than the Mercedes on both short, qualifying-style runs and longer race-style runs, which is completely contradictory to their form in testing, when all their rivals felt Ferrari were ahead.

Ferrari playing games?
The session left plenty of intrigue ahead of qualifying on Saturday, when the cars' true pace will be shown for the first time.

Vettel ended the day 0.873secs slower than Hamilton, a result that, if it were repeated on Saturday afternoon would surprise the whole paddock.

Vettel was just 0.03secs slower than Hamilton in the first session of the day, as 0.084secs covered them and Verstappen.

But while Mercedes found a second's worth of pace for the second session, Vettel improved by just 0.164secs and Verstappen by only 0.392secs.

Verstappen's relatively slow time can be explained by the fact he set his fastest lap at the start of a long run, so it cannot be compared with other drivers' headline times because of the amount of fuel he would have had on board.

Adding to the confusion, on the race-distance runs late in second practice, Vettel on the fastest 'soft' tyre was only very slightly faster than team-mate Charles Leclerc on the slowest 'hard'.

Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen was fifth quickest - just 0.099secs behind his former Ferrari team-mate Vettel.

That margin added to the suspicion that Ferrari might have been playing games because the margin between Vettel and Raikkonen was smaller than it was on average between them when they were team-mates. So for Raikkonen to be that close in a car that will undoubtedly be slower only emphasised the point that Ferrari can find plenty more time.

 

I never felt any excitement in FP1 or FP2...I felt I was still in Barcelona. All the teams (except one) seemed to be struggling to find themselves. The only non surprise was Mercedes and Hamilton being fastest. I don't think anybody is sandbagging at this point...they all need to be chasing maximum performance and the limits. Williams is obviously in trouble...I'm guessing the approach they are taking for the whole weekend is that these are the two and a half testing days they missed in Spain. If people don't have their racing set up by now, god help them. FP3 should be all about qualifying...followed either cheers or tears.

 

They running about +1.5 sec from qualy last year. No need to panic just yet.

Leclerc for pole ,win ,and fastest lap !

 

Mercedes almost a second faster than RB (in this case...). without party mode.....they have the party mode with happy ending but for me booooorrrrinnng....

ciao
Oscar

 

I see this as some additional test but with the real car and updates. It was strange that Ferrari now complain of balance but Barcelona is nothing like Melbourne. No car is stable in all regimes at all circuits. I think today no one can say at all

 

Id be quite pleased to see Charles win!

 

Checo might need to get used to this scenario LOL - https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/142130/perez-first-day-of-practice-not-good-at-all

Racing Point Formula 1 driver Sergio Perez says his first day of practice ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix was "not good at all".

Perez ended both Friday practice sessions in Melbourne in 16th place, trailing new team-mate Lance Stroll by two tenths in FP1 and four tenths in second practice.

"They [the sessions] haven't been great, not good at all," said the Mexican after FP2.

"I think there's a lot of understanding that we need to go through, in detail, and try to come up with the best possible compromise for tomorrow.

"It's very tight, that midfield pack, so anything we can find will be very beneficial for us.

"I'm struggling a bit with balance. So I need to go through it, tyres as well - obviously tyres are a big thing, we have a very cold track in the morning, then a very hot one in the afternoon.

"So, a lot of work to be done."