the dutch max verstappen (Red Bull) was the faster this friday in the first free practice of the Australian Grand Prixat the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, in a session with two flags reds that ended prematurely.
The Traffic Paradise movement strikes again in Australia! 😲
Relive an action-packed opening practice session 👇🍿🤯#AusGP #F1
—Formula 1 (@F1) March 31, 2023
In the best of his laps, Verstappencurrent world champion and who has never won in Australia, set a time of one minute, 18 seconds and 790 thousandthswith a soft tire, the only one that went down from 1:19.
The Dutchman was 433 thousandths faster than the British lewis hamilton (Mercedes), second, and the Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez (Red Bull), who signed the third best time at 503 thousandths of a Verstappenwith intermediate tires in the best of his laps.
On the other hand, the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished the session in fourth place and stopped the clock 527 thousandths off the best time, on hard tires, while his compatriot Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) finished sixth, 715 thousandths behind Red Bull.
The session was interrupted by a Red flag for about 10 minutes after the second half of the workout, for safety reasons due to problems with the GPS tracking system.
These problems caused heavy traffic in some sectors of the circuit, but the skill of the drivers prevented an accident from happening.
Less than 5 minutes to the end of the training, the williams from the american logan sergeant stopped working for mechanical problems and got stuck on the grass near turn 11, so the race directors brought out the red flag and determined the end of the session.
The layout of the Albert Parkwith a length of 5,303 kilometers, is classified as a fast circuit since the remodeling it underwent last year, in which some slow corners were eliminated.
He Australian GPwhich traditionally opened the World Cup, was placed since 2022 as the third test of the 23 that this season’s calendar has.
(With information from EFE)
Reference-aristeguinoticias.com
