The opening day of the F1 season proved somewhat frustrating as changeable weather conditions prevented teams from clocking up the practice miles in Melbourne. 

Jolyon Palmer made the best of the challenge with 12 trouble-free laps in Free Practice 1, but the Renault Sport Formula One Team could only manage a series of installation runs in the second session as the rain returned to the Australian city.

Persistent showers meant the track surface was never truly dry during the 90 minutes of running in FP1, but the circumstances did at least provide drivers with the opportunity to sample wet, intermediate and dry Pirelli tyres. 

Jolyon bettered his team-mate Kevin Magnussen by nearly four tenths of a second during the intermediate running with both Renault Sport F1 cars inside the top ten running order.

The sun forced its way through in the latter stages, which led to a flurry of track activity and changes in the timesheets. 

With rain still in the air and moisture on the track surface, however, the window of opportunity remained limited. A number of drivers were able to improve on their lap times, including Palmer, as the young Briton ended the session in 14th place.

Free Practice 2 proved frustrating for Palmer and Magnussen as the Renault duo only ran a series of installation laps. With rain continuing to fall and drier weather forecast for the remainder of the weekend, the French manufacturer decided that discretion was the better part of valour in such conditions.

It was arguably the correct call too as a number of drivers struggled to keep their machines on track, most notably Nico Rosberg who crashed out of the second session. His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton topped both session. 

Speaking to the team Jolyon said: “That was my first time driving here and Albert Park is a pretty cool circuit with a great street-track feel; it’s a bit bumpy and has a decent challenge to it. The car felt decent in the wet today; it was pretty balanced throughout both sessions and there were no surprises. There’s plenty of work to be done tomorrow, and I’m particularly looking forward to qualifying, especially as that might be my first dry laps here.”

So the curtain has fallen on a rather inconclusive day on-track, but F1 is back nevertheless and more importantly Jolyon has come through it well and with renewed vigour for his weekend's prospects. 

Free Practice 3 and Qualifying make up tomorrow's timetable, with the latter commencing at 6am UK time, before Sunday sees Jolyon taking part in his first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Keep up to date with Jolyon's weekend right here on his official website and follow his social media feeds for updates from the man himself.

Free Practice 1 results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:29.725		14
2	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:30.146	+0.421	14
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:30.875	+1.150	13
4	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:31.325	+1.600	8
5	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:31.720	+1.995	14
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:31.814	+2.089	11
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:33.060	+3.335	11
8	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:33.129	+3.404	16
9	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:33.370	+3.645	6
10	Kevin Magnussen	Renault F1 Team	1:34.060	+4.335	13
11	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:34.550	+4.825	6
12	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:34.679	+4.954	6
13	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:34.796	+5.071	7
14	Jolyon Palmer	Renault F1 Team	1:35.477	+5.752	12
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:37.956	+8.231	6
16	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing	1:40.401	+10.676	6
17	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:40.754	+11.029	10
18	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas F1 Team	1:41.780	+12.055	8
19	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing	1:43.372	+13.647	7
20	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1:43.443	+13.718	6
21	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari			8
22	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso			3