Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc held the advantage over the rest as he topped the times in the second practice session for this weekend’s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
Leclerc, who achieved his sole grand slam in the top flight to date at this venue in 2022, posted a best time of 1:17.277s on the Soft compound to end up 0.381s clear.
Carlos Sainz has returned following his appendicitis operation in Saudi Arabia but lagged four-tenths behind his team-mate, with Max Verstappen splitting the Ferraris.
The practice hour witnessed only 19 drivers take to the Albert Park Circuit as Alex Albon’s shunt at Turn 7 during FP1 saw him be ruled out of the session altogether.
Williams has revealed that it has no spare chassis at the track, placing Albon’s participation in the weekend in doubt as the engineers assess the extent of the damage.
Meanwhile, Verstappen was sidelined for part of the session as Red Bull changed the floor on his RB20, with the Dutchman clocking the second-fastest overall time.
Lance Stroll is aiming to recover from a race-ending crash in Jeddah a fortnight ago but scuppered an initial push lap when he went too deep into the final corner.
However, the Canadian in the Aston Martin rebounded from that minor setback to lead team-mate Fernando Alonso on the timesheets to complete the top five runners.
The circuit was proving to catch out several drivers and George Russell had to address a moment at Turn 1 that saw his Mercedes car skate across the grass run-off.
Nevertheless, the Briton wound up sixth fastest overall, ahead of the McLaren of Oscar Piastri in front of his home crowd, Sergio Perez’s Red Bull and Lando Norris.
RB were required to assess Yuki Tsunoda’s floor but the Japanese driver was able to conduct his long run having posted a time good enough to round out the top 10.
Sauber has brought upgrades this weekend as it bids to improve its fortunes and Zhou Guanyu wound up 11th, with Daniel Ricciardo in the second RB coming next.
Logan Sargeant was 13th in the sole remaining Williams but his participation was most notable for a spin at Turn 11 and then an excursion through the gravel at Turn 1.
Valtteri Bottas trailed two-tenths behind Zhou in 14th, with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon in the two Alpine cars sandwiching Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas VF-24 charger.
Lewis Hamilton languished an underwhelming 18th on the order and proclaimed that “something is wrong” on the team radio as he enquired about his rivals’ times.
Kevin Magnussen was the last of the drivers to set a time in FP2, although the Danish racer was on the Medium tyre compared to other drivers on the grippier Soft.
