@GeorgeRussell63 Tops #AustralianGP FP3 session as @MercedesAMGF1 team-mate #Antonelli Crashes. #F1

Russell Australian GP FP3 – Mercedes’ George Russell blasted his Silver Arrow to top a red-flag-affected final practice session at the season-opening Australian GP ahead of Ferrari pairing Sir Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc as the former’s (Russell’s) team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli suffered a heavy shunt.

Russell posted the session-topping benchmark of a 1:19.053 with the C5 red side-walled softer compounds to be a massive 0.663 seconds clear of Hamilton whilst Leclerc was a further 0.774 adrift in third.

Following a 20-minute delay to FP3 due to barrier damage after a big crash during the Formula 3 Sprint Race, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was the first driver to hit the Albert Park Circuit on a set of the C3 white-branded harder compounds.

Cadillac’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Hamilton also ventured out on the C4 mediums and C5 softer rubber.

Colapinto registered the first lap-time of a 1:24.222, which was beaten by Hamilton’s 1:21.599 after three purples whilst Perez slotted into third on a 1:25.722,

Gasly pipped his team-mate Colapinto into second with a 1:23.473 effort as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso suffered a front-right lock-up into the turn three right-hander.

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg backed off his flyer along with team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto to go for another hot-lap.

Colapinto moved back into second and ended up 1.472 seconds off Hamilton’s best time as the Alpine driver completed his fourth tour on the hards.

Hulkenberg then jumped to second posting a 1:22.129 as team-mate Bortoleto put his Audi third with a 1:22.287.

A yellow flag was waved as Williams’ Carlos Sainz was stuck out on track in the pit entrance. The Spaniard looked to have a suspected hydraulic issue like team-mate Alexander Albon had yesterday.

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to Sainz’s stoppage at the tenth-minute mark of proceedings as Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Gasly, Colapinto, Norris, Haas’s Esteban Ocon, Leclerc, Mercedes’ Antonelli and Russell.

At the 46^th-minute remaining mark, the red flag was finally waved to clear Sainz’s FW48 racer off the pit-lane entry line.

After Sainz’s Williams was cleared and the session resumed with 39 minutes left on the clock, reigning world champion Norris lead the pack out and with a set of the C5 softer compound.

The Briton on his initial hot-lap jumped to second to be 0.866 behind Hamilton’s benchmark, which was then beaten by Piastri and then Verstappen who wounded up 0.407 adrift of the Ferrari driver (Hamilton).

Leclerc then moved up into third with an identical lap time to Verstappen of a 1:20.979.

Antonelli picked up a solid slipstream on his flying lap to jump to the head of the pile with a 1:20.324 to be 0.248 seconds in-front of Hamilton.

Replays showed Hamilton suffering a front-right lock-up into turn three along with a double lock-up from Valtteri Bottas in the other Cadillac.

Leclerc was next and with two purples and a middle personal best went to P1 with a 1:20.271 to end up 0.053 clear of Antonelli.

Hulkenberg then put his Audi sixth as his team-mate Bortoleto jumped his German team-mate to fourth with his 1:20.575 effort.

Piastri then hit second with his 1:20.317 effort as Hamilton returned to the top of the time-sheets with a 1:20.176 to be a narrow 0.095 seconds clear of team-mate Leclerc at the end of the first half hour.

Norris on his next flying lap with a personal best could only reach ninth and ended up 0.987 seconds adrift of Hamilton’s best time as Liam Lawson put his VCARB02 tenth on his hard tyre run as his team-mate Arvid Lindblad moved up into ninth with a 1:21.109 effort.

The yellow flags were brought out briefly as Albon stopped just after turn four, but managed to get going again.

Home favourite Piastri with two personal bests returned to top spot, posting a 1:20.164 to go 0.012 clear of Hamilton as the latter could not improve on his next tour.

Leclerc was next and with a purple sector one and two personal bests went quickest on a 1:19.827 to end up 0.337 seconds clear of Piastri as Norris with two personal bests could not improve on his next hot-lap and remained in 12^th.

The Monegasque driver got a purple opening sector and then a poor middle sector but gained ground in the final sector and just missed out on improving his time by 0.042 seconds. Russell and Hamilton before him could not improve also despite setting personal bests.

Reigning world champion Norris on his 11^th tour on the softer tyre got a personal best sector three to move back up into ninth and ended up 1.212 seconds off Leclerc’s benchmark.

All 21 drivers apart from Hulkenberg with less than 20 minutes remaining returned to their garages to make their setup adjustments.

Hulkenberg made an error at the penultimate corner and despite a personal best opening sector could not improve and remained in tenth as both Mercedes of Russell and Antonelli re-joined on a new set of the C5 softs.

Russell was on his flyer setting a purple sector one but had to abandon his flyer as his team-mate Antonelli suffered a heavy shunt out of the exit of turn two bringing out the second red flag.

Replays showed Antonelli took too much kerb on the exit of turn two and sent his F1 W17 entry backwards into the barrier and sent his car across the track and into the opposite wall scattering debris all over the circuit.

After Antonelli’s Silver Arrow and the debris was cleared with four minutes remaining, Norris lead the pack out on a set of the softs.

Norris moved up into fifth overall with a 1:20.443 as Russell with two purples to take top spot with a 1:19.053 to end up 0.774 ahead of Leclerc.

Piastri improved on his final flyer to be third, but only briefly as Hamilton jumped to second to end up over half-a-second off former team-mate Russell’s benchmark.

Four-time world champion Verstappen could only manage sixth and behind team-mate Isack Hadjar as the session ended.

The session ended with Russell on top and ahead of Ferrari pairing Hamilton and Leclerc.

Home favourite Piastri took fourth for McLaren of Red Bull duo Hadjar and Verstappen who were fifth and sixth respectively with the latter frustrated with his steering column aboard his Ford-RBPT-powered RB22 entry.

The aforementioned Antonelli ended up seventh in the other Silver Arrow as reigning world champion Norris ended FP3 eighth for McLaren.

Audi’s Bortoleto and Haas’s Oliver Bearman rounded out the top ten runners.

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