Piastri tops final practice, more woe for Bearman and Lawson

Home favourite Oscar Piastri led an extremely tight top three for McLaren in final Australian Grand Prix practice in Melbourne.

George Russell's Mercedes and Max Verstappen's Red Bull were within 0.081 seconds of Piastri's 1m15.921s benchmark.

Leading positions
1 Piastri
2 Russell
3 Verstappen
4 Leclerc
5 Antonelli

Full results at bottom of page

But two of Formula 1's least experienced drivers go into qualifying for the season-opener hugely underprepared.

Having lost almost all his Friday running to a heavy crash, Haas's Ollie Bearman desperately needed Saturday morning mileage.

Instead he spun deep into the Turn 11 gravel after clipping the grass as he braked for the right-hander in the final part of the circuit, causing a red flag and ending his session immediately.

Red Bull's new second driver Liam Lawson had a full Friday of running but was off the pace throughout. He won't have many more answers for qualifying as what the team called a power unit issue meant he didn't do a flying lap in practice three.

At least his team-mate Verstappen showed much better pace - topping the session repeatedly and only narrowly pipped by Piastri and Russell at the end. Kimi Antonelli underlined Mercedes' pace in fifth, while Piastri's team-mate Lando Norris didn't get a clear or clean flying lap and was down in 10th.

Ferrari looked less convincing than on Friday, Charles Leclerc noting confidence-sapping oversteer as he took fourth, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton four places further back.

Williams kept itself among the frontrunners, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon ending the session sixth and seventh.

FP3 results

1 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m15.921s
2 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.039s
3 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.081s
4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.267s
5 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.285s
6 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.331s
7 Alex Albon (Williams) +0.337s
8 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.457s
9 Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) +0.534s
10 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.676s
11 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +0.786s
12 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +0.798s
13 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.811s
14 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +1.027s
15 Jack Doohan (Alpine) +1.072s
16 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +1.225s
17 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1.349s
18 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.452s
19 Ollie Bearman (Haas)
20 Liam Lawson (Red Bull)