Melbourne, 15 March – Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso ended the first free practice session of the Australian Grand Prix and indeed of the season, in second and third places respectively in their Ferraris. As usual, during the first 90 minutes of track action, there was very little grip to be found on the semi-permanent Albert Park circuit. Sebastian Vettel was quickest for Red Bull in 1.27.211, with Massa doing 1.27.289 in his F138, while Alonso posted a 1.27.547. After concentrating on an evaluation of the new Medium Pirelli compound and testing different aero set-ups, the Scuderia ended the session with some pit stop practice.
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Classification Pos |
Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps | ||
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing | 1:27.211 | 16 | |||
| 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:27.289 | 0.078 | 17 | ||
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:27.547 | 0.336 | 16 | ||
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:27.552 | 0.341 | 18 | ||
| 5 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | 1:27.668 | 0.457 | 18 | ||
| 6 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:27.877 | 0.666 | 17 | ||
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:28.013 | 0.802 | 17 | ||
| 8 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:28.426 | 1.215 | 19 | ||
| 9 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:28.440 | 1.229 | 19 | ||
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:28.520 | 1.309 | 15 | ||
| 11 | Sergio Perez | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:28.597 | 1.386 | 19 | ||
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:28.786 | 1.575 | 19 | ||
| 13 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:28.910 | 1.699 | 18 | ||
| 14 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:29.443 | 2.232 | 20 | ||
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1:29.928 | 2.717 | 19 | ||
| 16 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:30.203 | 2.992 | 17 | ||
| 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:30.729 | 3.518 | 17 | ||
| 18 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:30.969 | 3.758 | 19 | ||
| 19 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:31.263 | 4.052 | 24 | ||
| 20 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:32.176 | 4.965 | 23 | ||
| 21 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault | 1:32.274 | 5.063 | 21 | ||
| 22 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham-Renault | 1:32.388 | 5.177 | 18 | ||