Hamilton quickest in rain-hit Australian GP first practice

Lewis Hamilton set the pace for Mercedes in the rain-hit first practice session for the 2016 season opener in Australia.

Wet weather overnight meant conditions were damp for the start of the session. The track dried out, but rain showers returned later in FP1.

Hamilton put in a 1:29.725 in the closing stages on dry tyres, before more wet weather arrived, to go quickest. Daniil Kvyat was second for Red Bull, four tenths further back.

Daniel Ricciardo ended the session third in the second RB12, despite beaching his car in the gravel at Turn 12 with one minute left on the clock. Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen completed the top five.

Nico Rosberg was sixth, with Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Sergio Perez – despite stopping in the pits early on – and Kevin Magnussen next up. Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were 11th and 12th for Williams.

Felipe Nasr, Jolyon Palmer, Marcus Ericsson, Pascal Wehrlein and Kimi Raikkonen, who suffered a late off-track excursion – were next on the leaderboard. Esteban Gutierrez was the lead Haas F1 car in 18th, with Rio Haryanto and Romain Grosjean 19th and 20th.

Despite venturing out on track for some running in FP1, Sebastian Vettel failed to set a timed lap and was 21st. Carlos Sainz Jr suffered a problem mid-way through the session and also did not put in a time.

Australia – Practice 1 Result:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:29.725		14
2	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:30.146	0.421	14
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:30.875	1.150	13
4	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:31.325	1.600	8
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:31.720	1.995	14
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:31.814	2.089	11
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1:33.060	3.335	11
8	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	1:33.129	3.404	16
9	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:33.370	3.645	6
10	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:34.060	4.335	13
11	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.550	4.825	6
12	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.679	4.954	6
13	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	1:34.796	5.071	7
14	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:35.477	5.752	12
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1:37.956	8.231	6
16	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes	1:40.401	10.676	6
17	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:40.754	11.029	10
18	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas-Ferrari	1:41.780	12.055	8
19	Rio Haryanto	Manor-Mercedes	1:43.372	13.647	7
20	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1:43.443	13.718	6
21	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			8
22	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso-Ferrari			3