Australia, FP1: Mercedes fastest in first practice in Melbourne

Nico Rosberg went fastest in first practice in Melbourne as the 2015 Formula One season got underway at the city’s Albert Park circuit. The German’s best lap of 1:29.557 edged out team-mate and defending champion Lewis Hamilton by two hundredths of a second.

Rosberg’s best time was less than two tenths slower than the fastest lap of the whole weekend in Melbourne last year, underlining just how much progress as been made with the sport’s technically impressive hybrid power units over the winter.

However, while Mercedes made a predictably blistering start to the season, with Rosberg and Hamilton both more than a second clear of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, there was slower progress elsewhere, or none at all in the case of Sauber and Manor GP/Marussia.

Sauber has this week found itself embroiled in a legal dispute with Dutch driver Giedo van der Garde over 2015 race seats and this afternoon in Melbourne the team and drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr sat out the first practice.

Manor GP/Marussia’s drivers Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi also failed to turn a wheel in the session. The team were apparently without software necessary to run the cars, the information having being lost from hard drivers wiped in advance of their sale when the team went into administration last year.

With Bottas claiming the day’s third fastest time, fourth place went to Toro Rosso Carlos Sainz. The Spanish driver’s team-mate Max Verstappen, the sport’s youngest ever driver at just 17 years of age, finished in sixth place, just behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Both rookie’s put in solid performances in their first outing, with Sainz finishing less than four tenths behind Bottas.

Behind Verstappen, Felipe Massa was seventh in the second Williams, while Kimi Raikkonen was eighth fastest for Ferrari.

Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado logged the session’s setting ninth fastest time, but team-mate Romain Grosjean spent much of the session in the garage after his car required a change of its floor.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo recovered from an early hydraulic problem and a brief spin to round out the top 10.

McLaren continued to struggle with it new Honda-powered car with Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen completing just 13 laps between them. The finished in 14th and 15th places respectively.