{"id":44717,"date":"2026-03-06T10:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T05:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=44717"},"modified":"2026-03-06T10:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T05:22:11","slug":"australian-grand-prix-2026-practice-1-leclerc-leads-ferrari-1-2-verstappen-third-as-rookies-impress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/formula-1\/race-weekend\/australian-grand-prix-2026-practice-1-leclerc-leads-ferrari-1-2-verstappen-third-as-rookies-impress\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Grand Prix 2026 Practice 1: Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2, Verstappen third as rookies impress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrari made a strong start to the Formula 1 Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix 2026 weekend<\/strong>, with Charles Leclerc topping the timesheets in Practice 1 at Albert Park, Melbourne<\/strong>. The Ferrari driver clocked a best lap of 1:20.267<\/strong>, finishing ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton<\/strong>, who secured second place to complete a Ferrari one-two.<\/p>\n

Reigning champion Max Verstappen<\/strong> placed third for Red Bull Racing<\/strong>, just over half a second behind Leclerc. Red Bull\u2019s young driver Isack Hadjar<\/strong> delivered an impressive performance to finish fourth, showing strong pace early in the race weekend.<\/p>\n

Ferrari and Red Bull show early pace<\/h3>\n

Ferrari looked comfortable during the opening session, with both drivers reporting positive car balance under the new regulations. Leclerc set the fastest time on a late run using soft tyres, while Hamilton stayed close behind throughout the session.<\/p>\n

Red Bull also appeared competitive, with Verstappen maintaining consistent pace. Hadjar\u2019s fourth-place finish highlighted a strong start for the young driver, who adapted quickly to the Albert Park circuit.<\/p>\n

Rookie Arvid Lindblad impresses on debut<\/h3>\n

One of the standout stories of the session was Arvid Lindblad<\/strong>, who placed fifth for Racing Bulls<\/strong> during his first Formula 1 race weekend. His performance placed him ahead of several experienced drivers and drew attention early in the weekend.<\/p>\n

Mixed session for other teams<\/h3>\n

McLaren faced difficulties<\/strong> during the session. Oscar Piastri<\/strong> managed sixth place but reported power delivery issues, while Lando Norris<\/strong>, the 2025 world champion, completed only seven laps due to a gearbox problem<\/strong>, leaving him down in nineteenth.<\/p>\n

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished seventh and eighth<\/strong>, showing stable but unspectacular pace during the early running.<\/p>\n

New entrant Audi placed both drivers inside the top ten<\/strong>, with Gabriel Bortoleto ninth and Nico Hulkenberg tenth<\/strong>, suggesting encouraging early pace for the team.<\/p>\n

Technical issues for Aston Martin and others<\/h3>\n

The session also saw technical troubles for Aston Martin<\/strong>, with both cars experiencing power unit problems. Lance Stroll completed only three laps<\/strong>, finishing at the bottom of the standings.<\/p>\n

There were no major crashes or red flags<\/strong>, though minor issues such as a hydraulic leak on Alexander Albon\u2019s Williams briefly triggered yellow flags.<\/p>\n

With Practice 1 complete, attention now shifts to Practice 2<\/strong>, where teams will continue setup work and race simulations ahead of qualifying and the Australian Grand Prix scheduled for March 8 at Albert Park<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ferrari made a strong start to the Formula 1 Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix 2026 weekend, with Charles Leclerc topping\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":44718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4669],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-race-weekend"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44719,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44717\/revisions\/44719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}