Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso during practice in Melbourne at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday, March 31, 2023.
In a rain-interrupted second practice at the Australian Grand Prix on March 31, Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin finished at the top of the charts, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc following closely behind. Although world champion Max Verstappen was the fastest in the first practice session, he finished the day in third place.
Veteran Alonso, who had made it to the podium in the first two races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, completed 13 laps around the bumpy circuit at Albert Park, with the best lap time of 1 minute 18.887 seconds. Alonso was better than his fourth place finish in the first practice session.
“The afternoon session was obviously affected by the rain, so there is still some work left to do tomorrow,” said Alonso. “This gave us less time to learn about the tyres and long-run pace of the car. However, so far it seems that the car is behaving well.”
Leclerc, who won in Australia last year, had a promising result finishing second, following the early reliability and pace issues faced by Ferrari. He was nearly half a second behind Alonso, but still ahead of Verstappen.
The Red Bull driver piloted his way around the wet track to clock 1:18.790 in the first practice, but he lost the opportunity to improve his timing due to poor grip and slippery conditions during the second practice.
“It was difficult to calculate how the car felt as we never got to the point where I thought we were in control of the tyres,” said Verstappen. “We will examine the data tonight and determine what we need to do tomorrow. The conditions for the rest of the weekend will be clearer, so we can focus on that.”
Red Bull targets a third consecutive win
After their dominant win in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Red Bull is looking to score their third consecutive 1-2 finish for the first time in the team’s history in Melbourne. Sergio Perez, who won in Jeddah, finished at seventh place.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton achieved a surprise second in the opening practice, but he finished in a disappointing 13th spot in FP2.
“This morning, things were good, however, the afternoon didn’t go as planned,” said Hamilton. “We made some changes in FP1 that didn’t work out as planned, and we will look at reverting them this evening.”
His teammate George Russell finished fourth, before Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who was followed by Esteban Ocon from Alpine in sixth place.
Lando Norris from McLaren, Nico Hulkenberg from Haas, and Pierre Gasly in the other Alpine completed the top 10.
Logan Sargeant from Williams had an electrical problem and failed to complete a lap.
As in FP1, Sainz set the early pace before Verstappen took over to power clear, but his reign as the fastest driver was cut short. Alonso posted a hot lap, and Leclerc also bettered Verstappen’s time just before the rain started pouring. Nearly all cars returned to the pits when Lance Stroll tapped a wall in his Aston Martin, and Norris ran onto the grass at Turn 1.
The drizzle let up, and multiple cars went back out for further testing purposes. While no driver improved their time, they gathered ample data. Sunday’s forecast for the race is sunnier.
The eventful first practice included Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda from Alpha Tauri skidding into the gravel. Tsunoda hit the gravel while moving backward and narrowly avoided crashing into the barriers. The first practice was red-flagged for safety reasons due to GPS issues.
It was halted again when Sargeant stopped on the track with just minutes remaining.