Merecedes dominates opening AGP practice 

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in the opening practice session of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

The reigning world champion was more than half a second quicker than his team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the close of the 90 minute session held in bright, sunny conditions at Albert Park.

Hamilton moved to the top of the times with an hour remaining which he held briefly before the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen shot to the top of the timesheets.

However, Hamilton grew stronger as the session progressed to log a 1:24.026s benchmark.

Bottas emerged as his nearest rival albeit 0.551s adrift of his team-mate, who set the time on the ultrasoft compound tyre.

Verstappen was third fastest as the upgraded RB14 enjoyed a strong showing, while Ricciardo ended the session in sixth, a second shy of the pace. Red Bull ran ultrasoft and supersoft compounds.

The Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel occupied fourth and fifth.

Romain Grosjean was the best of the midfield runners in the Haas F1, ahead of the Renault powered McLaren of Fernando Alonso, who endured a truncated session.

The two-time world champion spent the majority of practice in the garage as the team battled an exhaust issue.

Team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was also stationed in the garage for some time before logging a time to snatch 10th spot behind the Renault of Carlos Sainz.

Pierre Gasly put the Honda powered Toro Rosso into 11th position ahead of the Williams of Sergey Sirotkin.

The sister Toro Rosso driven by New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley finished the session in 18th position.

The outing ended with the drivers forming up on the grid to conduct practice starts to test the new start light formation deployed to allay potential visibility fears, following the introduction of the halo cockpit protection device.

Practice 2 is scheduled for 1600 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 1

Pos	Num	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Split	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:24.026		27
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:24.577	+0:00.551	29
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer	1:24.771	+0:00.745	26
4	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:24.875	+0:00.849	23
5	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:24.995	+0:00.969	22
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer	1:25.063	+0:01.037	25
7	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:25.730	+0:01.704	24
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Mclaren Renault	1:25.896	+0:01.870	16
9	55	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:25.922	+0:01.896	23
10	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mclaren Renault	1:26.482	+0:02.456	15
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:26.494	+0:02.468	25
12	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Mercedes	1:26.536	+0:02.510	25
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:26.583	+0:02.557	25
14	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India Mercedes	1:26.605	+0:02.579	30
15	18	Lance Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:26.636	+0:02.610	30
16	11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:26.767	+0:02.741	26
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:27.035	+0:03.009	13
18	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:27.745	+0:03.719	16
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:27.964	+0:03.938	28
20	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber Ferrari	1:28.853	+0:04.827	28