Leclerc leads Ferrari one-two in Melbourne practice

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton struck the first blow of the new Formula 1 era with first and second fastest times in opening practice at the Australian Grand Prix.

Leclerc replaced Hamilton in top spot with a late lap that moved him 0.469 seconds clear of the seven-time champion.

Until then, less than 0.1secs had separated Hamilton, Leclerc and Red Bull's Max Verstappen in Melbourne.

Verstappen's new team-mate Isack Hadjar was fourth fastest, 0.820secs off the pace, ahead of 18-year-old Briton Arvid Lindblad, making his debut for the Racing Bulls team.

Aston Martin, whose dire form has been in many ways the story of the new season so far, had a predictably difficult session.

Fernando Alonso was not able to run at all because of a problem with his Honda power-unit. Team-mate Lance Stroll managed just three laps before an engine problem was also discovered on his car.

Team principal Adrian Newey had stunned F1 on Thursday when he said that the vibrations from the Honda engine were so bad that Alonso felt unable to do more than 25 laps without risking permanent nerve damage in his hands.

Newey said: "We're having continuing problems with the battery, had a fresh problem that was communication with the battery to its management system. But the underlying problem is the vibration issues we continue to struggle with.

"We tried a different solution in Lance's car in the first session. There's some analysis going on as to whether that helped.

"Realistically, it's just trying to manage the problem. We are short on batteries. We have only two batteries left, the two in the car, so if we lose one of those it's a big problem. So we're having to be careful how we use the batteries."

Mercedes had come to Melbourne tipped as the favourites after pre-season testing but they had a low-key session and George Russell ended the session seventh fastest, 1.104secs off the pace and behind McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

Both Russell and team-mate Kimi Antonelli were struggling with understeer while the engine's energy deployment through the hybrid system was also not as optimised as they had hoped.

Team principal Toto Wolff said: "A difficult birth for us. We were not in such a good place on the chassis or power-unit side, but all things are surmountable, so interesting, exciting challenges to overcome in second practice."

As always, the caveat of practice is that it is impossible to know the specifications in which the cars run and fuel loads and engine modes can have a significant effect on performance.

McLaren had a difficult session afflicted by gearbox problems and world champion Lando Norris was down in 19th place.

Antonelli was eighth fastest, ahead of the Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto, whose team-mate Nico Hulkenberg took the final spot in the top 10.

Haas driver Esteban Ocon was 11th, split from British team-mate Oliver Bearman by Williams' Carlos Sainz and the second Racing Bull of Liam Lawson.

Valtteri Bottas was 17th for the new Cadillac team with team-mate Sergio Perez 20th.

1. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 1:20.267

2. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) ) +0.469

3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.522

4. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.820

5. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1.046

6. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +1.075

7. George Russell (Mercedes) +1.104

8. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +1.109

9. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +1.429

10. Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +1.702