McLaren leads the way at the end of opening day

Practice for the Australian Grand Prix resumed after a short break.

Unlike in the first session, the drivers immediately got back to work. Sergio Perez posted the first time on the board but was swiftly relegated down the order as the frontrunners completed some flying laps.

Alonso was the first to demote the Mexican, but then lost places to Button, Schumacher, Massa and Hamilton. After fifteen minutes, Hamilton was leading from teammate Button and Ferrari’s Massa. Nico Rosberg improved shortly after and moved up to P2. Hamilton then lowered his own benchmark to a 1’26’’961, making the most of the improving conditions.

At that point, the Red Bulls were outside of the top fifteen and seemed to be working in race configuration – on-board footage showed Webber lapping without using the adjustable rear wing. Both Vettel and Webber completed a long run of 20 and 16 laps respectively. They were four seconds off the pace of the cars in front.

As Vettel racked up the miles, his fellow German Michael Schumacher appeared at the top of the timesheet with a fastest lap completed in 1’26’’590.

Webber came back on track shortly after the halfway point and immediately jumped up the order, moving from P18 to P4. Also running soft tyres, Jenson Button improved his time and went fastest. Hamilton then upped the pace to break the 1’26 barrier, but his teammate answered with an even faster lap.

With less than thirty minutes remaining, Button was leading the way. Hamilton was second fastest, ahead of Alonso, Vettel, Webber, Schumacher and Massa. The top four was covered by just 0.160s.

There were no significant improvements in the final part of the session as the drivers could no longer open their rear wing as they pleased: the FIA indeed wanted to test the system in race conditions, thus allowing drivers to activate the device only in the selected overtaking zone.

So it was a McLaren one-two at the end of this opening day of practice in Melbourne. Alonso was third fastest, ahead of both Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber.

Frantic work in the HRT garage meant Tonio Liuzzi was able to leave the pitlane in the dying moments of the session and managed to complete an installation lap.