Sergio Pérez finishes in 10th place in first practice session

The Mexican driver Sergio Pérez had a busy day and remained on the edge of the top-10 throughout the day. In the first session, he finished in 10th place, while in the second session, although he improved his personal time, he finished in 11th place, and his teammate Frenchman Esteban Ocon finished in 3rd place.

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The 2017 Formula 1 season began this Friday with the first free practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix and so far there have been no surprises. Mercedes started as it has the last two seasons, at the top of the timing charts.

The new cars and rules came into official action for the first time on the Albert Park circuit.

In both the morning and the afternoon, British driver Lewis Hamilton dominated in both sessions, with his best time being in the second practice session with 1:23.620, surpassing by two tenths the pole position record he set himself last year.

So far, the Ferrari of German driver Sebastian Vettel is the only one that has been able to come close to the Mercedes times, being half a second behind and also occupying the second position in the second practice session, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton's new teammate, Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas.

Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen finished the day in fourth place with a time of 1:24.525, while Red Bull remained the third team on the grid on the first day of activities.

Local driver Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth followed by his teammate, Dutch driver Max Verstappen, while Toro Rosso, Haas, and Renault have made commendable progress throughout the day.

Spanish driver Carlos Sainz finished in seventh place, 1.4 seconds behind Hamilton, while French driver Romain Grosjean finished eighth and debutant with Renault, German driver Nico Hulkenberg, also surprised by putting the car in ninth place. Russian driver Daniil Kvyat finished in tenth place.