Hamilton tops wet-dry first practice at Melbourne
In a mixed weather session where the rain came and went, Lewis Hamilton topped the times to kick off the 2016 season in the best possible manner. He ended the 90 minutes of running ahead of Daniil Kvyat and local hero Daniel Ricciardo, who managed to beach his car towards the very end of the session.
The session was eventually very unconclusive, as some drivers managed to set times during drier times, while others came out and were greeted with more rain as they got off to the flying lap. Such was the case for Sebastian Vettel, who did just 8 laps as he opted not to take any risks towards the end of the session.
Carlos Sainz though was worse off, with just 3 laps on the clock before he hit car trouble that saw him locked in the pitlane for the remainder of the session.
Results
| Pos. | .No. | .Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:29.725 | - | 14 |
| 2 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull Racing | 1:30.146 | +0.421s | 14 |
| 3 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1:30.875 | +1.150s | 13 |
| 4 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:31.325 | +1.600s | 8 |
| 5 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:31.720 | +1.995s | 14 |
| 6 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:31.814 | +2.089s | 11 |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:33.060 | +3.335s | 11 |
| 8 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:33.129 | +3.404s | 16 |
| 9 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:33.370 | +3.645s | 6 |
| 10 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1:34.060 | +4.335s | 13 |
| 11 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:34.550 | +4.825s | 6 |
| 12 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:34.679 | +4.954s | 6 |
| 13 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:34.796 | +5.071s | 7 |
| 14 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1:35.477 | +5.752s | 12 |
| 15 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:37.956 | +8.231s | 6 |
| 16 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 1:40.401 | +10.676s | 6 |
| 17 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:40.754 | +11.029s | 10 |
| 18 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 1:41.780 | +12.055s | 8 |
| 19 | 88 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 1:43.372 | +13.647s | 7 |
| 20 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:43.443 | +13.718s | 6 |
| 21 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | - | - | 8 |
| 22 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | - | - | 3 |
