Australia – Free Practice 2: Charles Leclerc ahead of Verstappen and Sainz

After the first Free Practice session of the Australian Grand Prix won by Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), the second session of the day started at 8 a.m. French time. With the Melbourne sky looking threatening above Albert Park, the drivers were quick to take to the track, so as not to get trapped in the event of rain.

The Alfa Romeo were the first to exit the pit lane, followed by the rest of the field. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) was the first to set a reference time of 1:20.898 ahead of his Spanish teammate by 0.247 seconds. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) improved the Monegasque's marks to place at the top of the rankings in 1:20.432. When stopping at the end of the first session, Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) did not participate in this second hour of driving of the weekend.

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The situation did not improve much for Mercedes after two Grand Prix contested. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were struggling to get into the top ten and the seven-time world champion was even doing a little gardening at the end of the second sector. The Ferraris took back the lead with Carlos Sainz in 1:19.979 ahead of his teammate. The two Scuderia drivers took turns at the top of the standings. On the side of Red Bull, Max Verstappen was hardly satisfied with his car and was only in 9th place, two places ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez.

The surprise came from Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard placed his Alpine, turned blue again, in the lead mid-session in 1:19.537, on softs. A short-lived joy for the double world champion, immediately beaten by the Ferraris, also in softs. Carlos Sainz repositioned himself at the top in 1:19.376. Charles Leclerc improved further, in 1:18.978. The championship leader was the first to drop below minute nineteen. Max Verstappen finally found his rhythm and climbed to second place, 0.245 behind Leclerc. The Monegasque retained this place until the checkered flag in front of the Dutchman and Sainz.

Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Valtteri Bottas, Lando Norris (McLaren), Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) and Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) completed the top 10.