Oscar Piastri is hoping to become the first home driver to win the Australian Grand Prix as an F1 event [Getty Images]McLaren's Oscar Piastri finished the first day of running of the new Formula 1 season in first place after Friday practice at the Australian Grand Prix.The Australian was 0.214 seconds quicker than Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, whose team-mate George Russell was third fastest ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.Red Bull's Max Verstappen was sixth fastest ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris and the 18-year-old British rookie Arvid Lindblad, who had an impressive first day in F1 for Racing Bulls.Aston Martin, the story of the weekend so far as a result of major problems with their Honda engine, had a better session after only managing three laps in first practice.Fernando Alonso was able to do 17 laps after missing the entire first session because of vibration problems with his engine but was 4.933 seconds off the pace.Alonso in 'hard mental place', says NeweyHis team principal Adrian Newey has laid bare Honda's problems in two extraordinary news conferences on consecutive days, on Friday explaining how the situation was affecting Alonso, and how their engine partner has found itself struggling so much.Completing the top 10 was the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar and Haas' Esteban Ocon, whose British team-mate Oliver Bearman was 11th.The headline lap times may well not be a true reflection of outright pace as the top teams all did their laps at different times of the session - Mercedes running relatively early and Piastri late, when the track would have been faster.On the race-simulation runs later in the session, Mercedes appeared to have a significant advantage over Ferrari, the only other top team to run on the same hard tyre.However, Mercedes' programme allowed them to do many more laps.Red Bull and McLaren ran on the medium and soft tyres on their race runs.All you need to know about new F1 carsNorris, Verstappen, Russell - and will it be any good? Key F1 storylinesTop 101. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 1:19.7292. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.2143. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.3204. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.3215. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.5626. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.6377. Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.0658. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1.1939. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.21210. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.450Full practice resultsHow to follow Australian Grand Prix on the BBCNew era of Formula 1 - what is changing in 2026?The 'rare combination' behind Britain's youngest F1 driverOne question for all 22 F1 drivers on the 2026 gridRussell 'elite' and a 'leader' - now he may have car to challenge for title'Drive to Survive got me into F1 - now I work at Williams' Cadillac and Audi - the same ambition but two very different projectsHow to follow 2026 F1 season on BBCF1 2026 Preview: New Rules & a Four-Way Title Fight?Australian Grand Prix PreviewArvid Lindblad: How far can Formula 1's youngest driver go?