All you need to know about Australian GP F1 practice two

Formula 1 championship leader Charles Leclerc led Max Verstappen in the second practice session at the Australian Grand Prix.

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Key moments

• Leclerc fastest ahead of Verstappen…
• …but Verstappen has to back out of faster lap
• Alonso an impressive fourth
• Mercedes duo both outside of top 10

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Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz led a Ferrari 1-2 in the morning and that FP1 benchmark was further lowered in the afternoon.

Sainz led the early stages of the session before he was displaced by the Alpine of Fernando Alonso and then Leclerc, before the Spaniard returned to the top on a 1m19.376s just before the halfway mark.

Five minutes later, Leclerc moved back to the top of the timesheets, setting a 1m18.978s that would remain unbeaten for the rest of the session.

His closest challenger was reigning F1 champion Verstappen who was 0.245s slower than Leclerc’s benchmark.

Verstappen was on a lap that was quicker than Leclerc after the first two sectors, but he ran wide at the penultimate corner and had to back out of it.

Sainz was third quickest ahead of Alonso, who has just one Albert Park win from his 18 races here, and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix polesitter Sergio Perez.

Alonso’s team-mate Esteban Ocon was sixth fastest ahead of Valtteri Bottas who survived a brief off-track excursion at Turn 1 to end the session seventh for Alfa Romeo.

McLaren’s Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were eighth and 10th respectively with the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly sandwiched between them.

George Russell was the fastest Mercedes driver in 11th place. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton was only 13th.

The duo were once again experimenting with set-up in the early part of the session, leading to a high level of porpoising and a loose rear of the W13, for Russell in particular before changes were made.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who missed the first two races of the 2022 season, continued to suffer a nightmare Friday as his team was unable to change his power unit in time for him to get back on track following the issue that caused him to stop on track in FP1.

A rogue piece of team-mate Lance Stroll’s Aston flying onto the track caused a brief red flag with 10 minutes to go as the marshals recovered the part.

Practice 2 Results