MELBOURNE, March 22 — McLaren’s Lando Norris outpaced world champion Max Verstappen today to top the timesheets in a first practice in Melbourne that was disrupted when Alex Albon hit a wall at high speed.

The Briton Norris powered round the Albert Park circuit with a best time of one minute 18.564 seconds on soft tyres.

He grabbed the lead midway through the hour-long session from Red Bull’s Verstappen, who responded with a lightning final lap to be 0.018 adrift.