Formula 1: Unusual ‘traffic jam’ forced halt to messy first training session in Australia, won by Verstappen

It seems impossible, but it was real. A ‘traffic jam’ on the track forced the first free practice session of the Formula 1 for him Australian Grand Prixwhich the Dutch later ended up winning Max Verstappen (Red Bull) escorted by Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and his teammate Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez.

The argument used by the organization of the maximum competition was a problem in the GPS of the vehicleswhich did not allow him to inform the teams of the rivals’ position on the track, which produced a rare image for this type of session, where the weather usually alternates on the asphalt.

These problems caused heavy traffic in some sectors of the circuit, but the experience of the drivers – such as the Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) – prevented an accident from happening.

But that wasn’t the only interruption that the session had, as it ended prematurely after a second red flag, which appeared less than 5 minutes from the end when the American from Williams Sergeant Logan it stopped running due to mechanical problems and stopped on the grass approaching turn 11.

All this did not stop Verstappen from being the fastest in the first training session. In the best of his laps, the two-time reigning world champion and never winner in Australia, he set a time of one minute, 18 seconds and 790 thousandths, on soft tyres, the only one to dip under 1:19 .

The Dutchman was 433 thousandths faster than the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), second, and the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), who set the third fastest time at 503 thousandths – with intermediate wheels in his best laps – from Verstappen.

For his part, the Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) ended the session in fourth place and stopped the clock at 0.0527s of the best time, on hard tyres, while his compatriot Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) finished sixth at 0.715s from the Red Bull.