Leclerc Aus GP FP2 – Leclerc pips Piastri by 0.124s
Leclerc Aus GP FP2: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lead the McLaren pairing of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the afternoon FP2 session at the Australian GP.
Leclerc posted the benchmark on the C5 red side-walled softer tyre with a 1:16.439 effort and was 0.124 seconds clear of Piastri whilst Norris was a further 0.141 seconds adrift in third.
In the other SF-25 entry, Sir Lewis Hamilton ended the day fifth behind Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda as the latter’s debutant team-mate Isack Hadjar impressed in sixth.
Tsunoda, Norris and Williams’ Carlos Sainz all enjoyed moments at the head of the time-sheets in the 60-minute session, before Leclerc’s 1:16.794 lap-time on the C4 yellow-branded mediums, most cars were running established the first benchmark.
At the one-third mark of proceedings, Hamilton jumped into second, although with a 0.4 second gap to team-mate Leclerc on the same medium compound.
As the pack emerged for their mid-session qualifying simulation stints – it was Tsunoda who ousted Leclerc posting a 1:16.784, as the McLaren duo took longer to get up to speed on their C5 softs that the field had swapped to.
Just after reigning world champion Max Verstappen aborted his initial soft stint in a challenging Red Bull RB21, Norris jumped in-front setting a 1:16.580, as Piastri’s first flying tour on the red side-walled compound put the home favourite third.
With under half-an-hour left on the clock, Leclerc pushed in his initial stint on the C5’s and returned back to the top – posting FP2’s session-topper of a 1:16.439.
Hamilton set his C5 soft flyer just before, but the seven-time world champion could not get ahead of Tsunoda, and both were then demoted by Piastri’s effort on a second qualifying simulation stint to move up to second and wound up 0.124 seconds off Leclerc, as Norris slotted in 0.017 seconds behind his McLaren team-mate.
Another late improver was Verstappen, who slotted in seventh behind the aforementioned Hadjar, who looked to have an impeding moment with Norris at the beginning of the mid-session performance runs.
Verstappen had aborted his initial hot-lap after running deep into the opening corner and then sliding at the third corner, as the Honda-RBPT-powered RB21 continued it’s difficult start to the campaign.
Sauber’s returnee Nico Hulkenberg survived an excursion into the gravel trap at the turn six exit to take eighth as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Mercedes’ George Russell rounded out the top ten runners.
The Williams FW47 entries of Sainz and Alexander Albon followed in 11th and 12th respectively as the other Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso ended the day 13th.
Other home favourite Jack Doohan put his Alpine A525 14th and in-front of team-mate Pierre Gasly who was 15th.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished the day 16th in the second F1 W16 entry and ahead of Red Bull’s Liam Lawson who took 17th.
The other Sauber driver of Gabriel Bortoleto and MoneyGram Haas entry of Esteban Ocon brought up the rear.
Oliver Bearman missed the entire hour session after Haas could not repair his VF-25 entry in time.
The session finished with the teams undertaking their traditional long race data gathering runs.
You can see the full Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1254/australia/practice/2
Norris Aus GP FP1 – Norris fastest in FP1 as Bearman crashes
Norris Aus GP FP1 – McLaren’s Lando Norris topped the first practice session of the year at the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as the action was interrupted twice by red flags.
Leclerc was the quickest in the opening 15 minutes of the hour-long session with an early effort of a 1:17.880, as the first quarter featured both Red Bull drivers getting away with scary moments – Liam Lawson tapping the wall on the run-down to turn eight and Max Verstappen clipping the gravel exiting the sixth corner.
After a break in action, the session was stopped briefly due to debris scattered on circuit – possibly from Jack Doohan’s A525, which had been amongst the car bringing gravel onto the track at the modified turn six.
The session went green just before the halfway point, as Verstappen emerged on the C5 softs and went fastest on a 1:17.696.
The rest of the frontrunning drivers were already on course to complete their initial flyers on the softs much later, with Leclerc moving into second by 0.060 seconds just after former team-mate Sainz went quickest in his Williams posting a 1:17.401.
But the session was then stopped after MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Oliver Bearman suffered a heavy shunt after going off at the fast turn ten right – the young Briton whacking the right-hand side of his VF-25 entry against the outside barrier before the wrecked car bounced back across the circuit.
The action only went back to green with 11 minutes left on the clock, after which Norris had his initial attempt at a flyer impeded by Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda moving ahead just as the McLaren driver was about to open up.
Home favourite Oscar Piastri did get a hot-lap in with fresher C5 rubber on the other MCL39 entry as the McLaren driver ended up 0.269 seconds off of Sainz to end up third, before Norris relegated his team-mate with an effort 0.117 seconds adrift of the Spaniard, but with the fastest time in sector three.
In the closing stages, Norris jumped to the top of the time-sheets posting a 1:17.252, whilst Williams’ Alexander Albon slotted into sixth behind reigning champion Verstappen’s effort.
Mercedes’ George Russell, who finished the opening practice session seventh, suffered a spin at turn four just before the end, dipping his right side tyres on the grass after the turn three exit.
Aston Martin pairing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were eighth and tenth respectively as RB’s Isack Hadjar sandwiched in ninth.
RB’s Tsunoda finished outside the top ten in 11th and ahead of Ferrari’s Sir Lewis Hamilton who ended his first session for the Scuderia in 12th whilst Alpine’s Jack Doohan placed 13th in the order.
Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson were all 14th, 15th and 16th in the classification.
The other Alpine of Pierre Gasly took 17th and in-front of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg as Haas’s Esteban Ocon and the aforementioned Bearman brought up the rear.
You can see the full Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1254/australia/practice/1
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