Red Bull’s Verstappen set a quickest lap of 1m18.790s to end the session ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, who jumped up the order late on after initially struggling with the handling of his W14. Hamilton had been adrift of his team-mate George Russell during the early exploratory laps on the harder tyres.
Sergio Perez took third in the second Red Bull ahead of Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso, although the former’s best time was set on the mediums, as he went off track on his soft-tyred run.
Then came Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who had an off-track moment midway through the session after the rear of his SF-23 snapped right running through the Turns 1-2 complex.
Several drivers had similar issues, with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda’s off the most dramatic as he spun and his AT04 bounced into the air after it hit the gravel trap in the runoff behind the left/right sequence.
Heavy wind gusted across the Albert Park track at this point all through FP1, which likely contributed to the many issues the drivers were having once they began to press on the soft compound tyres in early qualifying simulation runs.
Lando Norris took seventh for McLaren ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Russell and Lance Stroll, who rounded out the top 10 in the second Aston. Stroll was the only other leading car runner to set their personal best on the mediums.
Although he led the way, Verstappen’s session was not smooth, as he regularly missed the Turn 1 apex and at one point had to catch a big oversteer snap going through the quickly following Turn 2.
In the closing stages, he climbed too far over the Turn 4 exit kerbs, while pushing on well-used softs, and spun off sideways – at the same spot where Sebastian Vettel crashed his Aston in the 2022 race here last year after making a similar mistake.
Just past the halfway point, the session was suspended when the GPS system used by the F1 organisation, the FIA and the teams went down. Several drivers had near misses due to their squads being unable to inform them of other cars approaching with big speed differences.
This led to a nine-minute red flag, with a second stoppage following in the closing minutes as Logan Sargeant stopped his Williams at the exit of Turn 11 due to a suspected electric issue.
| Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
17 | 1'18.790 | 241.157 | ||
| 2 |  Lewis Hamilton |
 |
20 | 1'19.223 | 0.433 | 0.433 | 239.839 |
| 3 |  Sergio Perez |
 |
19 | 1'19.293 | 0.503 | 0.070 | 239.627 |
| 4 |  Fernando Alonso |
 |
23 | 1'19.317 | 0.527 | 0.024 | 239.555 |
| 5 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
16 | 1'19.378 | 0.588 | 0.061 | 239.371 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz |
|
20 | 1'19.505 | 0.715 | 0.127 | 238.988 |
| 7 | Lando Norris |
 |
16 | 1'19.536 | 0.746 | 0.031 | 238.895 |
| 8 |  Pierre Gasly |
 |
22 | 1'19.646 | 0.856 | 0.110 | 238.565 |
| 9 | George Russell |
|
23 | 1'19.699 | 0.909 | 0.053 | 238.407 |
| 10 |  Lance Stroll |
 |
19 | 1'19.766 | 0.976 | 0.067 | 238.206 |
| 11 |  Alex Albon |
 |
21 | 1'19.766 | 0.976 | 0.000 | 238.206 |
| 12 |  Oscar Piastri |
 |
22 | 1'19.777 | 0.987 | 0.011 | 238.173 |
| 13 |  Nico Hulkenberg |
 |
19 | 1'19.806 | 1.016 | 0.029 | 238.087 |
| 14 | Nyck de Vries |
 |
25 | 1'19.933 | 1.143 | 0.127 | 237.709 |
| 15 |  Logan Sargeant |
 |
21 | 1'20.074 | 1.284 | 0.141 | 237.290 |
| 16 | Esteban Ocon |
 |
20 | 1'20.175 | 1.385 | 0.101 | 236.991 |
| 17 |  Yuki Tsunoda |
|
14 | 1'20.399 | 1.609 | 0.224 | 236.331 |
| 18 |  Valtteri Bottas |
 |
21 | 1'20.419 | 1.629 | 0.020 | 236.272 |
| 19 |  Zhou Guanyu |
|
22 | 1'20.569 | 1.779 | 0.150 | 235.832 |
| 20 |  Kevin Magnussen |
 |
17 | 1'21.147 | 2.357 | 0.578 | 234.152 |
| View full results | |||||||
