The prancing horse has a 3rd practice Saturday morning before the afternoon’s qualifying.
MELBOURNE, Australia—March 15th—Ferrari went into this first race weekend of the season looking at the rumors that they were going to dominate the opening week with Mercedes playing catch-up. At Friday’s practice at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Australia, that simply didn’t happen.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took both morning and afternoon practices with the best time of 1:22:600. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished in fifth, behind both Red Bull-Hondas of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.
Hamilton began the day right at the front, taking the best time from teammate Valtteri Bottas, who had the lead from the start of the morning session. Both Ferrari of Vettel and his new teammate, Charles LeClerc, had a difficult time getting near the front of the grid, finally taking second and third positions by Vettel and LeClerc, respectively.
Red Bull was with Verstappen, who’s always in the thick of the action, finishing fourth in the morning and third later in the day. This is proving that the Dutchman’s aggressive style and Honda’s reliable power could soon challenge the top two teams.
Kimi Raikkonen, fresh in his new Alfa Romeo, was another steady challenger, finishing sixth in both sessions.
It was very interesting whether the Renault team could get closer to the top three teams but, after the day had ended, it was obvious that even with home hero and newcomer Daniel Ricciardo on board, the team might have advanced, but very much in the slightest, with Ricciardo finishing in disappointing fashion in 17th, He recovered in the afternoon to take eighth, behind teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who must have felt the push from the Aussie as the German took 10th and seventh place, respectively.
As for the American Rich Energy Haas F1 Team, Kevin Magnussen finished a fine opening practice, taking ninth, but fell to 12th in the afternoon.
As far as major incidents of the day were concerned, Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon spun twice, once in each session, with the opening session being red flagged for a few minutes so the Thai-born Briton could get back to the pits, minus his front wing. LeClerc had a spin coming out of turn four in the second session and, although he did recover, the Monegasque could finish no higher than ninth.
Has Ferrari suddenly lost form to Mercedes? We’ll see. The prancing horse has a 3rd practice Saturday morning before the afternoon’s qualifying.
