#F1 #AusGP FP2 & FP1 Round-up: @alo_oficial tops damp FP2 & @Max33Verstappen quickest in FP1.

Alonso fastest in damp FP2

 

 

Alonso Aus GP FP2 – Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was fastest in the afternoon FP2 session at the Australian Grand Prix before the rain hit Albert Park, which left Charles Leclerc in second for Ferrari and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third.

 

After 20 minutes of the second hour-long practice session, Alonso shot to the top of the time-sheets with a 1:18.887 with Leclerc 0.445 seconds off and Verstappen a further 0.615 adrift of the Spaniard. Mercedes’ George Russell followed in fourth place and 0.785 seconds off – albeit there were no representative qualifying simulation runs in FP2.

 

As the rain fell, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Leclerc broke the lull – with every driver back in the pits due to the rain – with some exploratory tours on the Pirelli C4 softer slicks, but they confirmed it was too wet for dry tyres.

 

Shortly after the two SF-23 entries braved the Albert Park Circuit on the softs, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton ventured out on the green-branded intermediates and the rest of the field followed suit. Although the order remained unchanged, drivers did relish driving their 2023 machinery in damp conditions and the track had a hive of activity in the second half of FP2.

 

The aforementioned Sainz was fifth and 0.808 seconds adrift of Alonso’s Aus GP FP2 benchmark and ahead of Ocon who was sixth and Sergio Perez placed seventh in the other Red Bull RB19 entry.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris caught people’s attention sliding sideways on his exit of the Woking based-squad’s garage, and 20 minutes in, took a short excursion across the turn one grass area before taking eighth in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg whilst the other Alpine A523 entry of Pierre Gasly completed the top ten.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda took on a second gearbox of his allocated four for the 2023 campaign ahead of the afternoon session, and finished ahead of Alfa Romeo’s 12th-placed Valtteri Bottas.

 

Behind 13th-placed Hamilton was home Grand Prix favourite Oscar Piastri, who received a great reception from the capacity crowd at Albert Park while Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu followed the Australian in 15th.

 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll touched the barriers through the high-speed run to turns nine and ten, with 20 minutes remaining and the Canadian almost hit the wall later on at turn ten as he lapped on the intermediate rubber. Stroll ended the day 16th and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon finished in 18th on the classifications, but his team-mate Logan Sargeant was unable to complete a lap in FP2 due to an electrical issue, which halted his Mercedes-powered FW45 racer in the earlier Free Practice 1 session. Splitting the pairing was Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen in 19th.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1143/australia/practice-2.html

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Verstappen tops opening practice session

 

 

Verstappen Aus GP FP1 – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen set the early pace in the opening FP1 session at the Australian Grand Prix, leading Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who were second and third respectively.

 

After their solid back-to-back one-two finishes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Red Bull continued where they left off in Free Practice 1 as Verstappen emerged straight on the Pirelli C4 softer compound to lead the opening swapping of P1 on the time-sheets with Perez, who began the session on the C3 yellow side-walled mediums.

 

Red Bull’s earlier tours showed a glimpse of promise with the upgrades they brought to Melbourne, with the already-quick RB19 featuring a new front-wing end-plate, additional front wing changes and a tweak to the rear-end bodywork to aid cooling of the Honda-powered car.

 

Mercedes were another to add updates to their car, with the F1 W14 running updated floor edge vanes on their soon-to-be-revised car, but there were no fresh updates for both Ferrari and Aston Martin.

 

After a flurry of mid-session lap-times lighting up the classification, reigning world champion Verstappen held top spot with a 1:18.790, half-a-second clear of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez – the Mexican’s best efforts came from the C3 medium rubber.

 

Perez slid his RB19 through turn three on the C4 softs, before a lack of GPS – which caused several traffic issues and near-misses – this triggered a red flag, which meant he finished without a time on the red-marked tyre.

 

Despite having a comfortable advantage, it was not all smooth for Verstappen as reported to his team “terrible” gearshifts, rear brake trouble when he dipped a couple of wheels on the grass at the turn 11 exit and suffered a spin at turn four later on.

 

After saving a huge slide through turn nine, Hamilton set a late improvement on the softs to split the Red Bull duo in second place on the time-sheets in his Silver Arrow, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso took fourth, followed by the Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz who were fifth and sixth respectively.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris placed seventh in the order and ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly who was eighth, the other Mercedes of George Russell who ended opening practice ninth and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon finished outside the top ten in 11th place and in-front of home favourite Oscar Piastri who placed 12th for McLaren, Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg (13th) and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries (14th).

 

The other Williams FW45 of Logan Sargeant encountered a tough FP1 session reporting he was “bottoming out so much, I can’t even see”, before his car came to a halt late on – which signalled another red flag – amid technical problems, leaving the American 15th and ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda took 17th after suffering a wild spin at the opening corner, which almost ended in the barriers, as the Alfa Romeo pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen brought up the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1143/australia/practice-1.html