World champions Mercedes gave an early glimpse of their expected sustained advantage at the front of the Formula 1 field by dominating the first practice session of 2015 in Melbourne.
After an impressive winter testing with the new W06, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton set the pace by over a second from the rest of the field in the opening forays at Albert Park, with Rosberg’s 1:29.557 already two seconds faster than the corresponding P1 benchmark from last year.
Rosberg, 0.029s quicker than his defending world champion team-mate Hamilton, was 1.191 seconds clear of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, the team thought most likely to challenge Mercedes in the early weeks of the season.
The reunited McLaren-Honda partnership are not expecting any challenge from their all-new MP4-30 to come until later the season and the early signs from Melbourne are that the reliability problems which plagued the team's pre-season have not yet completely disappeared.
Although Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso's stand-in Kevin Magnussen took to the track in the early stages of P1, the pair had completed just 13 laps between them when McLaren were forced to call an early halt to their session with a mechanical problem.
"We've brought the curtain down early on our #FP1 running to check over a small mechanical issue with a power-unit component," the team tweeted after their cars ended up over four seconds off the pace.
Still, McLaren's session was significantly better than those of returning Manor and embattled Sauber as neither of the backmarker teams completed a single lap.
While Manor were getting on top of software issues with their modified 2014 car - delays which could also rule them out of P2 - Sauber seemingly chose not to run either of their cars in the session amid the team's legal dispute with Giedo van der Garde.
Having won his case against his former employers in the local courts on Wednesday over claims that they reneged on a contract to drive in 2015, Van der Garde appeared in the Albert Park paddock on Friday morning. Although he completed a seat fit in the C34 in Ericsson's overalls, the superlicence he needs to compete has yet to been rubber-stamped. The Dutchman's legal team remain in the Supreme Court having launched a Contempt of Court Application against Sauber.
Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson spent a good deal of the session strapped into their cars before eventually climbing out again. Meantime, bailiffs gathered outside the paddock awaiting orders to start seizing Sauber's assets. Assuming the team are in contempt of court, team principal Monisha Kaltenborn could face a fine or even a prison sentence.
Only 16 cars therefore completed any running in the season's opening session, although Romain Grosjean's laps can hardly be considered representative after the Frenchman experienced problems with his Lotus E23 floor.
With a number of their usual midfield rivals experiencing fraught build-ups to the new season, Toro Rosso are being tipped to perform strongly this weekend and their all-rookie duo of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen ended P1 in impressive fourth and sixth places respectively on the timesheet.
Indeed, the Red Bull junior team outshone the 'A' squad as the former world champions could only muster 10th and 11th places in the order. Home favourite Daniel Ricciardo was heard complaing about the Renault-powered RB11's driveability after spinning into the grass at Turn 15.
2015 Australian GP Practice One timesheet
1) Nico Rosberg, Mercedes 1:29.557
2) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:29.586
3) Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:30.748
4) Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:31.014
5) Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:31.029
6) Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso 1:31.067
7) Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:31.188
8) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:31.310
9) Pastor Maldonado, Lotus 1:31.451
10) Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:31.570
11) Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:32.073
12) Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:32.247
13) Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:32.261
14) Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:34.542
15) Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1:34.785
16) Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 2:17.782
17) Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, No time
18) Felipe Nasr, Sauber, No time
19) Will Stevens, Manor, No time
20) Roberto Merhi, Manor, No time
Sky Sports F1 will be broadcasting every race in 2015, starting with live and exclusive coverage of the Australian GP on March 15. The race starts at 5am UK Time on Sunday
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