After Max Verstappen's back-to-back wins, there were encouraging signs in Melbourne as Charles Leclerc finished FP2 with a nearly four-tenth lead over the Red Bull driver.
On a day when Red Bull were unable to catch up with their rivals, Leclerc set the pace with a 0.381 second lead over the world champion, with Carlos Sainz third.
Australian GP FP2: Charles Leclerc comfortable in P1
Shortly before one driver arrived after Alex Albon crashed in FP1, damaging all four corners of his Williams FW46 and its gearbox, and the team made it clear he would not be back on track in time for Saturday's practice The session began.
With track temperatures several degrees warmer, Honorary Australian Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to take to the track ahead of Sergio Perez. Verstappen's teammate was not expected for several minutes as Red Bull worked on Verstappen's car.
The drivers took on medium tires, with Fernando Alonso setting the benchmark time of 1:19.4. Unlike the first half of the session, which had a mix of softs and mediums, all 19 drivers ran mediums for the first 30 minutes of FP2.
After Perez replaced Alonso in first place, Leclerc took the lead, followed by Lando Norris and then Leclerc again with a time of 1:17.936. However, 20 minutes into the session, Verstappen still hadn't left the pits due to a broken floor.
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Logan Sargent spun out with some doubts about appearing at the weekend given Williams don't have a spare chassis for teammate Albon, George Russell complained Sainz was in the way, Lance Stroll twitched but still ran first.
The Aston Martin driver recorded a time of 1 minute 17.8 seconds, placing him 10 seconds ahead of his teammate, with Leclerc heading into the second half of the session in third place. The Ferrari driver, on new soft tyres, hit the front in 1:17.4.
Verstappen's hot lap was ruined by the slow Zhou Guanyu, who withdrew with some name-calling and dropped Verstappen to ninth place. He moved up to fifth place on the mediums on the next lap, with the Dutchman still not running on soft tyres.
With 20 minutes left it was one-two for Ferrari and Sainz put aside the pain to move into second place behind Leclerc. His teammates, both on soft tires, had a 0.430 second lead.
Verstappen moved to second place after switching to soft tires, but was still 0.381 seconds off Leclerc's best time.
Sainz, who is recovering from an appendectomy, finished third behind Stroll, Alonso and George Russell. As for Hamilton, who was badly off the pace, he told Mercedes: “Something is wrong.”
As for the two Australian drivers in F1, Oscar Piastri was seventh with Daniel Ricciardo in 12th. Honorary Australian Bottas was 14th.
times
1 Charles Leclerc 1:17.277
2 Max Verstappen +0.381
3 Carlos Sainz +0.430
4 Lance Stroll +0.545
5 Fernando Alonso +0.635
6 George Russell +0.674
7 Oscar Piastri +0.800
8 Sergio Perez +0.813
9 Lando Norris +0.878
10 Yuki Tsunoda +0.911
11 Zhou Guanyu +1.144
12 Daniel Ricciardo +1.257
13 Logan Sargent +1.301
14 Valtteri Bottas +1.308
15 Pierre Gasly +1.414
16 Nico Hulkenberg +1.425
17 Esteban Ocon +1.428
18 Lewis Hamilton +1.557
19 Kevin Magnussen +1.998
20 Alex Albon No Time
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