(Scuderia Ferrari SpA via Twitter)
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso led the way as the First Friday Free Practice session of the 2014 Formula One season got underway in Melbourne.
The Spaniard's best time was a 1m 31.840s and he finished 0.517s ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button in second place. It was a great session for the Williams Martini Racing team as Valtteri Bottas finished the morning session in third place with team mate Felipe Massa fourth.
Following a frustrating winter for the Red Bull Racing team they can be satisfied with their progress this morning as Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in fifth place, however it was not all plain sailing for the Milton Keynes based outfit as Sebasttian Vettel went on track with 39 minute's to go however, he managed to string together a good run of laps and finished the morning session in 7th place just behind Nico Rosberg in the W05.
It was a disappointing session for Lewis Hamilton, the Englishman goes into this weekend's Grand Prix as the favourite to take the victory on Sunday however, his session came to an end just five minute's in as his car came to halt on track.
In his first Friday session as an F1 driver, McLaren's Kevin Magnussen finished the session in 8th place just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. Toro Rosso's Jean Eric Vergne rounded out the top ten making it four Renault powered cars in the top ten.
While Red Bull and Toro Rosso had a good start to the new season, the Lotus F1 Team had practice session to forget as Romain Grosjean failed to make it out on track in the E22 and Pastor Maldonado managed just two installation laps before smoke appeared in his cockpit and his car ground to a halt in the pit-lane as he attempted to return to the garage.
Daniil Kvyat was 13th in the second Toro Rosso as the Russian took part in his first practice session as a fully fletched F1 driver having taken part in practice during last season's Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Sauber duo of Esteban Guiterrez and Adrian Sutil finished the session in 14th and 15th with the Marussia pair of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton the last drivers to set times in 16th and 17th place. Chilton's car came to a halt as he made his way down the pit-lane.
It is expected that during the second practice session the team's will work on their long run preparations but it is still far too early to say who are the team to beat this weekend. The second Friday session gets underway at 5.25AM (Irish time)
©Ben Johnston 2014
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