The English Lewis Hamilton, triple Formula One champion, who last year signed his second title with the dominant Mercedes, set the best time in rainy and inconsequential free practice for the Australian Grand Prix, the first of the 21 that make up the World Cup 2016.
Hamilton, who turned 31 in January and had won his first title (with McLaren) in 2008, led both times tables and set the best time of the day in the first, by covering, on his good lap, the 5,303 meters of Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit in one minute, 29 seconds and 725 thousandths.
He was the only one to fall below a minute and a half in a day that served little else and in which the double Spanish world champion Fernando Alonso (McLaren) set the seventh time of the day, in the first test; and he was sixth in the second, just behind his compatriot Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso), inactive in morning training.
It rained a lot during the night in Melbourne and the temperatures also dropped significantly, compared to the previous day, in the beautiful oceanic town, where they say that all four seasons of the year can be experienced in the same day. Which is why the first official training sessions of the new season were largely marked by wet pavement and were of almost no use.
In the first session, Hamilton had set the best time, ahead of the Red Bulls of Russian Daniil Kvyat – who improved by 421 thousandths – and Australian Daniel Ricciardo – one second and one tenth behind – who was the first in open track in the second trial. Again with wet pavement, with intermissions, and almost after twenty of the 90 minutes have elapsed.
During the first half of the wet training session, the mishap of the German Nico Rosberg, world runner-up for the last two years, was hardly noticeable, behind his partner and British rival, with whom he celebrated two Constructors’ World Cups for Mercedes. It had no major consequences, except the introduction, for a few minutes of the virtual ‘safety car’.
Hamilton, like Nico with a new front wing, jumped onto the track with 25 minutes to go to the end of the session, set the best time and then it was all over, since when it seemed that the track was drying, it rained again, So the dry tires were not tested, which as of this season are three instead of two and in Australia they are medium compound, soft and super soft.
Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who hopes to forget the sports nightmare he experienced last year on his return to McLaren, was seventh in the first practice and finished sixth in the second, also with a lot of wind.
The Asturian double world champion (2005 and 2006, with Renault), who added the first points of his brilliant F1 career on this track in 2003, fell more than three seconds behind Lewis in the first test; and just over a second in the afternoon training session, in which Sainz from Madrid, who had not ridden in the first session, set the fifth time in the second, 945 thousandths behind the eccentric and spectacular English champion.
The quadruple German world champion Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), called to be the main opponent to the dominance of Mercedes, who had not rolled in the first, marked the ninth time of the second test with his red car, which he christened ‘Margarita’, according to him, in honor of the last Italian queen.
Vettel, who led Red Bull’s golden four-year period (2010-13), in which he led the four ‘doubles’ of the Austrian team, invested in his best lap a second and 920 thousandths more than Hamilton, who will seek his title poker in the longest World Cup in history, with 22 drivers, five champions, a new team (Haas) and three rookies, including Rio Haryanto, the first Indonesian since the creation of F1 in 1950.
Mexicans Sergio Pérez (Force India) and Esteban Gutiérrez (Haas) were ninth and eleventh, respectively, in the second training session. ‘Checo’, who is facing his sixth season in F1, rolled two seconds and 415 thousandths above the time of the last world champion. Esteban, who returns to the premier class after a year of testing at Ferrari, did so in just over four seconds.
This Saturday the qualifying for the first race of the year will be disputed, scheduled for Sunday with 58 laps and a route of 307 and a half kilometers.
The main qualifying round will be played in a new format. It will continue to have three sessions (Q1, Q2 and Q3), but seven of the first two sessions will be left out each time; and there will be eight that will be disputed in the decisive round for the first eight places on the grid, always by successive elimination of the slowest cars, until the two best play the ‘pole’ in a heads up.
Hamilton commands rainy and inconsequential Melbourne rehearsals
