Leclerc on Top in Second Australia Practice as Ferrari/Red Bull Battle Continues

Charles Leclerc further lowered the lap record around the revised Albert Park track on Friday afternoon as Scuderia Ferrari and Oracle Red Bull Racing continued their rivalry at the front of the field.

But it was another tough session for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team as neither Lewis Hamilton nor George Russell were able to break into the top ten.

After finishing second fastest to team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. in the morning session, Leclerc posted a time of 1:18.978 to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to top spot by 0.245 seconds in the cooler afternoon session despite the Dutchman doing an extra qualifying simulation compared to the Monegasque racer.

Sainz kept himself in contention by setting the third fastest time, just under four-tenths of a second behind his team-mate, while fourth went the way of BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso as the Enstone-based team showed good speed throughout the day in Australia.

Alonso’s best time put him ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez, with the Mexican 0.680 seconds off the outright pace of Leclerc and 0.435 seconds behind team-mate Verstappen.

Esteban Ocon was able to confirm the pace of the Alpine squad as he put himself into the top six, with the Frenchman the final driver to get within one second of Leclerc’s fastest time.

Valtteri Bottas continued his impressive start to his Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN career with the seventh fastest time, with the Finn ending just ahead of McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris, while Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten.

Finishing just outside the top ten was the leading Mercedes of Russell, with the Briton more than 1.2 seconds off the pace, while team-mate Hamilton was more than one and a half seconds back in thirteenth, with the seven-time World Champion having an off-track moment at turn twelve as he struggled to find the performance needed to be competitive.

In between the two Mercedes was the second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda, while Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team car into fourteenth.  The Canadian was Aston Martin’s only representative in the session as Sebastian Vettel sat it out as his mechanics changed his engine following his late stoppage in the morning’s running.

Zhou Guanyu put the second Alfa Romeo into fifteenth, just ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen, the Dane not yet finding the kind of speed he has done in the opening two races of the season that saw him score points.

Alexander Albon was the best placed of the two Williams Racing drivers in seventeenth, with team-mate Nicholas Latifi the slowest of the nineteen drivers who set a lap time behind Haas’ Mick Schumacher.

Albert Park Free Practice Two Result