The Latest Breaking News from Logan Sargeant Williams

After struggling with the ride of his RB19 car over kerbs and bumps in an FP1 session headed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Verstappen turned the tables in FP2. 

Almost the entire field opened their lap tallies on the medium tyres, barring the hard-shod Ferrari duo, and ownership over the fastest lap time quickly changed hands as the times tumbled.

The reigning F1 world champion returned to the top of the times after a Mercedes 1-2 in first practice, as Verstappen posted a best lap of 1m27.930s to lead the second session by 0.385s from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

Leclerc will start ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in Sunday’s race after the one-hour qualifying session on Friday, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Verstappen lost his lead from pole at the start, as the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton passed him in the opening corners. But Verstappen took control after a restart following Alex Albon’s big crash, passing Hamilton using DRS in the ultra-fast section ahead of Turn 9 –…

After Friday's rain-affected FP2, Saturday's final practice session predominantly took place on a dry Albert Park circuit despite the threatening Melbourne clouds, although a morning drizzle had further washed away the rubber that had been built up over the weekend.

Verstappen led the pack out of the pits at the start of FP2, but it was Carlos Sainz who logged the first time to set the first place benchmark, the Spaniard putting in a 1m20.378s on the medium tyres.

Verstappen led the pack out of the pits at the start of FP2, but it was Carlos Sainz that set the first time to set the first place benchmark, the Spaniard putting in a 1m20.378s on the medium tyres to establish the first-place benchmark.

Verstappen’s 1m18.790s led the way ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who jumped up the order late on after initially struggling with the handling of his W14, and running adrift of his team-mate George Russell during the early exploratory laps on the harder tyres.