24/03/2017
NEWS STORY
Ahead of the first practice session of the 2017 season, the air temperature is 21 degrees C, while the track temperature is 27 degrees. It's a little overcast.
This morning, and indeed much of this afternoon, will be much like Barcelona, testing. It is tomorrow, late in FP3 and then in qualifying, that the order of things should become apparent.
That said, any major problems such as reliability, should become apparent over the course of the day today.
Centre of attention earlier, which is surely the point, was the pink-liveried Force India, seen in all its glory for the first time.
As expected, the McLaren is sporting 'garden gate' sensors, for the Woking team and its engine partner this is a continuation of Barcelona.
Other than the pink Force India, most cars are different to how we last saw them, as the first of the various updates appear.
The lights go green and Romain Grosjean gets the season underway. He is followed by Vettel, Magnussen and Ericsson.
The Red Bull security team doing the usual job of trying to prevent photographers get access to the new front wing and bargeboards on Ricciardo's car.
In his Mercedes, which is sporting a triple-element T-wing, Hamilton complains that his boots feel funny... those on his feet not his tyres. When he returns to the pits he changes for another pair.
Only Ericsson, Vandoorne, Wehrlein and Verstappen remain out for a second un-timed lap.
Six minutes in and all have appeared bar Ocon who has a brake issue.
And after all the months of waiting... there's more. The install laps done, the drivers are back in the comfort of their garages and silence settle over Albert Park.
Then again, as Christian Horner admits, limited to just four engines a season, despite the fact the tyres should last forever, teams want to run as little as possible.
So, to use a Super Bowl analogy...
After around ten minutes of nothing, Stroll heads out, the Canadian teenager subsequently posts the first time of the year, a 1:33.380. Massa, Wehrlein and Ericsson also on track.
Next time around Stroll improves to 30.744, only marginally off the best time posted in FP1 last year, 29.725 posted by Hamilton.
Ericsson posts 33.35 as Hamilton heads out, followed by Bottas and Vettel.
A 28.294 sees Ricciardo go quickest, so we are already quicker than last year, though conditions were not as good.
No sooner has Perez posted 27.588 than Hamilton goes quickest in all three sectors, crossing the line at 26.478.
Vettel posts a cautious 28.631, while Bottas goes third with a 27.700.
The quickest times thus far are on the supers, though Massa, Alonso and Vettel are on softs. The ultrasofts won't appear until this afternoon.
As Hamilton runs wide, Hamilton raises the bar with a 25.535, ominously, teammate Bottas goes second (26.244).
A 25.860 sees Ricciardo split the Mercedes as the camera cuts to Grosjean's Haas, where the 'shark-fin' a vibrating worryingly.
In the McLaren garage, Vandoorne's car is up on its stand, with a suspected water leak, the youngster yet to post a time.
As Bottas goes quickest (25.142), with 35 minutes gone, Vandoorne, Verstappen and Ocon are the only drivers yet to post a time.
Verstappen complains of a problem losing sync of the gears, nonetheless he posts 28.092 to go 13th.
A 25.994 sees Raikkonen pop up in fourth, the Finn, like his teammate, on the softs.
Ocon finally leaves the pits, the Frenchman completing a cautious exploratory lap in the pink car.
After 40 minutes, when a set of tyres have to be handed back, it's: Bottas, Ricciardo, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Perez, Massa, Sainz, Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Kvyat.
There follows another period of... nothing.
Ten minutes later, Stroll and Verstappen break the silence as there appears to be a bargeboard issue on Hamilton's car, the offending piece apparently dislodged after a bumpy ride over one of the kerbs.
Vandoorne is finally on track again, while Stroll is now on the supers.
Vandoorne posts a 31.048, to remain 19th on the timesheets. The fact that teammate Alonso is on 27.709 will encourage him.
Surprisingly, Bottas makes the switch to ultras, we didn't expect to see them this morning.
As Vandoorne improves to 30.143, and Ocon posts his first time of the day (29.996), Ricciardo goes quickest (24.886).
Hamilton heads out on the ultrasofts, both Mercedes drivers making a very early switch.
Quickest in the first two sectors, Bottas posts 24.803, only 0.083s quicker than Ricciardo's best on softs.
Hamilton is quickest in all three sectors, stopping the clock at 24.220, half a second quickest than his new, best ever teammate.
While the two ultrasoft runners are quickest, the highest places soft runner is Raikkonen, who is 1.774s off Hamilton's pace.
Palmer's session appears to be at an early end, the Briton having encountered a transmission seal issue.
Ocon is back on track, seeking to improve on 16th (27.940). Currently, the entire field is covered by just 4.595s.
The Sauber duo have posted the most laps, both on 19, ahead of Massa and Kvyat (17). Vettel has completed just 5, Palmer 6 and Hulkenberg 7.
"One of the things that teams are looking at is wear rates for strategy calculations," says Pirelli. "Hamilton kept running on same set of ultrasofts."
With 17 minutes remaining, the Ferrari duo switch to the supers for the first time.
On the softer rubber, Raikkonen improves from 25.994 to 25.372, thereby remaining fifth. Vettel improves from 28.631to 25.464 to go sixth, both just over a second off the pace.
Both drivers have a slow lap but then their third laps are equally slow.
Pushing hard, Perez fails to improve on tenth (26.276), while Hulkenberg, finally back on track, posts 26.183 to go ninth.
Hamilton performs practice starts at the end of the pitlane as work continues on Vandoorne's car.
On longer run, Hamilton consistently posting in the mid 28s, as is Bottas.
Magnussen makes a late move to pass Perez but the Mexican is having none of it.
The session ends. Hamilton is quickest, ahead of Bottas, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Vettel, Massa, Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Perez.
Sainz is eleventh, ahead of Kvyat, Stroll, Alonso, Ericsson, Ocon, Magnussen, Wehrlein, Palmer and Vandoorne.
Check out our Friday gallery from Melbourne, here.