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Charles Bradley

F1 Grand Prix practice results: Leclerc fastest in Australian GP on Friday

Sainz led the opening practice session at Albert Park before Ferrari teammate Leclerc managed to go even faster in FP2 to end the day the quickest of all.

Red Bull emerged as Ferrari's closest challenger in both practice sessions, with Max Verstappen leading the charge for the Austrian team.

Australian Grand Prix FP1 results: Sainz fastest from Leclerc

Cla # Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval
1 55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 24 1'19.806    
2 16 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 21 1'20.377 0.571 0.571
3 11 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 20 1'20.399 0.593 0.022
4 1 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 22 1'20.626 0.820 0.227
5 4 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 22 1'20.878 1.072 0.252
6 31 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 27 1'21.004 1.198 0.126
7 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 26 1'21.027 1.221 0.023
8 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 23 1'21.155 1.349 0.128
9 14 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 21 1'21.229 1.423 0.074
10 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 23 1'21.247 1.441 0.018
11 22 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 26 1'21.289 1.483 0.042
12 63 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 26 1'21.457 1.651 0.168
13 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 18 1'21.661 1.855 0.204
14 10 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 26 1'21.701 1.895 0.040
15 24 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 21 1'21.821 2.015 0.120
16 18 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 24 1'21.869 2.063 0.048
17 23 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 25 1'22.754 2.948 0.885
18 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 18 1'23.186 3.380 0.432
19 6 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 25 1'23.924 4.118 0.738
20 47 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 15 1'24.349 4.543 0.425

What happened in Australian GP Free Practice 1?

Verstappen set the bar at 1m21.625s, running the soft tyres early, and lowered his time to 1m21.140s and 1m20.909s as the track began to rubber-in. A piece then fell off teammate Perez’s Red Bull, causing a brief red flag after 21 minutes.

Verstappen ran again on the softs, trimming his fastest time down to 1m20.857s. Leclerc then grabbed the top spot with 1m20.825s.

Verstappen retook P1 on 1m20.377s before Leclerc and Sainz grabbed a Ferrari 1-2, with Carlos on top with 1m20.325s, just 0.052s ahead of his teammate. Sainz then improved the P1 time to 1m19.806s, over half a second clear of the pack, but escaped a huge moment on the exit of Turn 2 in the closing minutes of the session.

Leclerc’s biggest moment came at Turn 1 when he visited the gravel after a practice launch from the pitlane and then another excursion at Turn 13 on his last lap.

Perez took third late on, half a second off Sainz, with Verstappen fourth, another two tenths further back, ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

Kevin Magnussen had a brief off at Turn 3 in his Haas but continued. Fernando Alonso suffered a quick spin, while Sebastian Vettel’s first day back at Aston Martin after his COVID diagnosis ended in a cloud of smoke that caused a second red flag.

His ride back to the pitlane on a scooter did not go down well with the FIA.

Australian Grand Prix FP2 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen

Cla # Driver Chassis Engine Time Gap
1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari Ferrari 1'18.978  
2 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Red Bull 1'19.223 0.245
3 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari Ferrari 1'19.376 0.398
4 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine Renault 1'19.537 0.559
5 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Red Bull 1'19.658 0.680
6 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 1'19.842 0.864
7 77 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1'20.055 1.077
8 4 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 1'20.100 1.122
9 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Red Bull 1'20.142 1.164
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren Mercedes 1'20.203 1.225
11 63 George Russell Mercedes Mercedes 1'20.212 1.234
12 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Red Bull 1'20.424 1.446
13 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 1'20.521 1.543
14 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes 1'20.611 1.633
15 24 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1'21.063 2.085
16 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1'21.191 2.213
17 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 1'21.912 2.934
18 47 Mick Schumacher Haas Ferrari 1'21.974 2.996
19 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1'22.307 3.329
20 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin Mercedes    

What happened in Australian GP Free Practice 2?

Sainz led a 1-2 for Ferrari in the first part of FP2, setting the early pace with a time of 1m19.979s.

Sainz and Leclerc began trading the top spot on the timesheets after switching to soft tyres 20 minutes into the session, the Ferrari duo finding continuous improvements to stay clear of the chasing pack.

After the 40-minute mark, Leclerc gave a glimpse of the underlying pace of the F1-75, lapping the circuit in 1m18.978s to assert his authority at the top of the timesheets.

Verstappen managed to separate the two Ferraris on his next soft tyre run, but still ended up nearly a quarter of a second behind Leclerc after losing a chunk of time in the final sector.

The session had to be red flagged with just over 10 minutes left on the clock after Lance Stroll lost some bodywork from his Aston Martin after running over a kerb, but the track was soon cleared to allow all drivers to complete one final run.

In the end, Leclerc's previous time was not to be usurped, the Bahrain GP winner ending Friday practice comfortably on top ahead of reigning champion Verstappen and Ferrari teammate Sainz.

Alonso finished an impressive fourth in the Alpine, with Ocon backing up the performance of his teammate in sixth - behind the second Red Bull of Perez.

Mercedes failed to break inside the top 10, with Russell classified 11th and Hamilton finishing further behind in 13th.

Vettel spent the entire FP2 in the garage as Aston Martin crew worked on changing the Mercedes engine on the back of his car.

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