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Charles Bradley

F1 results: Verstappen, Alonso fastest in Australian GP practice

Verstappen was fastest in FP1 for Red Bull, despite a spin, and Alonso was quickest for Aston Martin in a rain-impacted FP2.

Australian Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Hamilton

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen 17 1'18.790     241.157
2 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton 20 1'19.223 0.433 0.433 239.839
3 Mexico Sergio Perez 19 1'19.293 0.503 0.070 239.627
4 Spain Fernando Alonso 23 1'19.317 0.527 0.024 239.555
5 Monaco Charles Leclerc 16 1'19.378 0.588 0.061 239.371
6 Spain Carlos Sainz 20 1'19.505 0.715 0.127 238.988
7 United Kingdom Lando Norris 16 1'19.536 0.746 0.031 238.895
8 France Pierre Gasly 22 1'19.646 0.856 0.110 238.565
9 United Kingdom George Russell 23 1'19.699 0.909 0.053 238.407
10 Canada Lance Stroll 19 1'19.766 0.976 0.067 238.206
11 Thailand Alex Albon 21 1'19.766 0.976 0.000 238.206
12 Australia Oscar Piastri 22 1'19.777 0.987 0.011 238.173
13 Germany Nico Hulkenberg 19 1'19.806 1.016 0.029 238.087
14 Netherlands Nyck de Vries 25 1'19.933 1.143 0.127 237.709
15 United States Logan Sargeant 21 1'20.074 1.284 0.141 237.290
16 France Esteban Ocon 20 1'20.175 1.385 0.101 236.991
17 Japan Yuki Tsunoda 14 1'20.399 1.609 0.224 236.331
18 Finland Valtteri Bottas 21 1'20.419 1.629 0.020 236.272
19 China Zhou Guanyu 22 1'20.569 1.779 0.150 235.832
20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen 17 1'21.147 2.357 0.578 234.152

What happened in Australian GP Free Practice 1?

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez set the early pace on medium tyres at 1m20.267s, until Verstappen beat that with 1m19.332s on softs. Lewis Hamilton went third for Mercedes, three quarters of a second down despite a wild slide at Turn 9.

Both Red Bulls improved after brief pitstops, with Verstappen lowering his P1 time to 1m19.278s and Perez just 0.015s slower. Verstappen then went even faster with a 1m18.790s, half a second quicker than Perez and almost a second up on the rest. That proved to be the fastest lap of the day.

Teams gravitated to the softs in the second half of the session, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc going third but was six tenths away from the pace, with team-mate Carlos Sainz nine tenths adrift. Perez suffered an off on his first push lap on softs and didn’t improve.

Alonso beat both Ferraris and got his Aston Martin to within 0.061s of Perez. The session was red flagged due to a GPS issue with just over 20 minutes remaining, which explained a high number of near misses in traffic.

After the resumption, Verstappen suffered a spin at Turn 4, blaming the state of his tyres. Hamilton jumped up to second, 0.433s off Verstappen. Perez was third, ahead of Alonso, Leclerc and Sainz.

Williams’s Logan Sargeant pulled off after an apparent electrical shutdown, which ended the session four minutes early.

Kevin Magnussen suffered an early off in his Haas at Turn 3, and later endured another wild ride at Turn 11. Yuki Tsunoda spun his AlphaTauri through the gravel at Turn 1.

Australian Grand Prix FP2 results: Alonso fastest from Leclerc

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Spain Fernando Alonso 13 1'18.887     240.860
2 Monaco Charles Leclerc 10 1'19.332 0.445 0.445 239.509
3 Netherlands Max Verstappen 12 1'19.502 0.615 0.170 238.997
4 United Kingdom George Russell 20 1'19.672 0.785 0.170 238.487
5 Spain Carlos Sainz 12 1'19.695 0.808 0.023 238.418
6 France Esteban Ocon 12 1'19.725 0.838 0.030 238.329
7 Mexico Sergio Perez 15 1'20.083 1.196 0.358 237.263
8 United Kingdom Lando Norris 20 1'20.176 1.289 0.093 236.988
9 Germany Nico Hulkenberg 19 1'20.194 1.307 0.018 236.935
10 France Pierre Gasly 12 1'20.206 1.319 0.012 236.899
11 Japan Yuki Tsunoda 18 1'20.220 1.333 0.014 236.858
12 Finland Valtteri Bottas 22 1'20.312 1.425 0.092 236.587
13 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton 17 1'20.323 1.436 0.011 236.554
14 Australia Oscar Piastri 24 1'20.380 1.493 0.057 236.387
15 China Zhou Guanyu 22 1'20.470 1.583 0.090 236.122
16 Canada Lance Stroll 15 1'20.579 1.692 0.109 235.803
17 Netherlands Nyck de Vries 8 1'20.600 1.713 0.021 235.741
18 Thailand Alex Albon 18 1'21.182 2.295 0.582 234.051
19 Denmark Kevin Magnussen 18 1'21.266 2.379 0.084 233.809
20 United States Logan Sargeant 0        

What happened in Australian GP Free Practice 2?

With rain threatening, and some spots already falling, teams were keen to maximise their track time early on. Verstappen bashed out an early 1m19.759s before running wide on the grass at Turn 1.

Perez, who started off on softs and set some rapid sector times, got held up on his first flying lap by Aston’s Lance Stroll. Alonso took over the top spot with 1m18.887s on mediums, eight tenths ahead of Sainz (on softs) and Verstappen (also on mediums).

Leclerc then took second on mediums, 0.445s off Alonso, as Verstappen also improved his time but stayed third as the rain intensified. Lando Norris suffered a brief off through the gravel at Turn 1 in his McLaren, which was enough evidence to send everyone pitwards.

A heavy shower soaked the track, with Stroll coming closest to hitting the wall as drivers ventured out on intermediate tyres.

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