#F1 #AustralianGP #FP2 Report: Home favourite @OscarPiastri quickest ahead of @MercedesAMGF1 duo.
Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL40, Free Practice 2, Formula 1 Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix 2026, Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Piastri Australian GP FP2, Australian GP FP2 Results, F1 Australian GP FP2, Formula 1 Melbourne FP2 Results.
Piastri Australian GP FP2 – Home favourite Oscar Piastri ended the day fastest for McLaren in the second practice session at the Australian GP ahead of Mercedes pairing Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell in the sport’s new era of rules and regulations. Reigning world champion Lando Norris was seventh in the other MCL40 entry.
Piastri posted the session-topping benchmark with the C5 softer compounds a 1:19.729 and was 0.214 seconds clear of Antonelli whilst Russell was a further 0.320 seconds adrift of the Australian in third.
Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg let the field out on a set of the C4 yellow-marked medium tyres with the drivers all on a mix of the C3 harder and C4 medium rubber.
Replays showed Mercedes’ George Russell clip the left-side of his front wing on Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad’s VCARB02.
Hulkenberg registered the opening benchmark of a 1:23.262 but was quickly beaten by Hamilton’s 1:21.506.
The incidents kept coming. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto looked to get stuck in neutral, and whilst he fiddled with his steering wheel he stayed on the racing line – meaning Hamilton had to take avoiding action on a hot lap.
“A car going crazy slow on the pit straight,” is all the seven-time former World Champion said.
Reigning world champion Lando Norris slotted in third briefly, then was ousted by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Williams’ Alexander Albon and Haas’s Esteban Ocon.
Replays showed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen come to a grinding halt in the pit-lane line.
Mercedes’ Russell jumped to the head of the times on the C3’s setting a 1:21.300 as his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli moved into second with a 1:21.426 also on the hards like his team-mate.
Piastri put his McLaren behind Hamilton in fourth on a 1:21.673 to also go ahead of Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.
Hamilton then returned to the top posting a 1:20.903 to go 0.397 seconds clear of Russell’s Mercedes.
Russell then improved to go 0.081 seconds off his former team-mate.
Hulkenberg then pushed his Audi into sixth, but only momentarily as Leclerc moved up into fourth and 0.575 seconds off his team-mate Hamilton.
Home favourite Piastri on the hards put his MCL40 racer into third to end up 0.173 seconds adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark.
Antonelli was next on his flyer and with two personal bests and a purple went quickest on a 1:20.801 to be 0.102 seconds clear of Hamilton at the 11th minute mark of proceedings.
Hamilton on his next lap could not improve and was over half-a-second down and remained in second.
Piastri was next on another hot-lap and with a purple opening sector and a personal best sector three jumped to top spot setting a 1:20.638 to end up 0.163 in-front of Antonelli.
Norris followed and the reigning world champion wit three personal bests remained in 14th and over two seconds down on team-mate Piastri’s benchmark.
Russell was next on the C5 softer compound and with three purples shot to the top of the pile posting a 1:20.049 to be over half-a-second quicker than Piastri.
His team-mate Antonelli followed on his flying stint on the softs and the Bologna-native put his Silver Arrow into second and was 0.178 seconds.
Hamilton with two personal bests on his 12th lap on the hards went up into third and was 0.588 seconds off Russell’s benchmark effort as the majority of the teams returned to the pits to adjust their setups and prepare for their qualifying simulation stints on the softs.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll ended up over seven seconds slower than Russell’s time-topper with a 1:27.214.
Lindblad emerged next on his first flyer on the softs and moved to eighth overall with a 1:21.838.
Antonelli with two purple sectors returned to the top with a 1:19.943 to be 0.106 seconds quicker than team-mate Russell.
Replays showed Russell suffer a front-right lock up into the turn three gravel trap, but the Briton managed to continue.
Lindblad with a purple middle sector and two personal bests was up to fifth and 1.168 seconds off Antonelli’s best time.
Leclerc was next on his flying stint on the softer compounds and with two personal bests and a purple middle sector went third quickest on a 1:20.380 to be 0.437 seconds off Antonelli’s best effort as the session past the half-an-hour mark.
Hamilton followed with a purple opening sector and two personal bests jumped to third to end up 0.176 seconds adrift of Antonelli.
Verstappen running on the medium compounds, moved to seventh to be 1.137 seconds off Antonelli’s best time as Lindblad pushed his VCARB02 racer ahead of both Hadjar and Verstappen with his 1:20.922 effort.
Home favourite Piastri was next on his flyer on the softs with a purple sector one and two personal bests took the P1 slot with a 1:19.729 to go 0.214 seconds clear of the Italian.
Leclerc with a purple middle sector and two personal bests remained in fifth and 0.562 seconds off Piastri’s benchmark.
Verstappen pushed his Red Bull up into sixth and was 0.637 seconds off Piastri’s best time as Hamilton suffered a front-right lock-up into the turn three gravel trap.
Hamilton with two personal bests went into fourth and 0.321 seconds off Piastri with 21 minutes remaining.
Reigning world champion Norris on his soft-tyre flyer with two personal bests moved up into seventh fastest and over a second slower than team-mate Piastri’s benchmark.
The Briton on his next hot-lap could not improve despite a personal best sector one with all the majority of drivers switching over to the C3 and C4 compounds to begin their traditional long race data gathering runs.
Stroll was told by his team to box after finding an issue with his Honda-powered AMR26 entry as Verstappen suffered a wild ride through the fast turn nine and ten corners.
The Dutchman had a late-snap of oversteer, which sent him over the rumble strip and through the gravel trap and a part of the tea tray of his RB22 came flying off and the car jumped over the gravel.
Replays showed Leclerc also have a moment running off at turn one bouncing over the grass.
Cadillac’s Sergio Perez was seen stopped on the right-hand-side in-between turns 11 and 12 as the VSC was deployed to slow the cars on-track down as the Mexican MAC-01 was wheeled behind the barriers.
The Mexican’s outage was reportedly a hydraulics issue.
Replays showed Hadjar suffer a front-left lock-up into the penultimate corner and ran off into the grass, the Frenchman managed to continue.
Leclerc was also shown to have suffered a front-right lock-up into the turn three right-hander and went into the gravel trap, but the Monegasque driver continued on.
The session ended with Piastri on top ahead of the two Mercedes of Antonelli and Russell.
Hamilton was the lead Ferrari in fourth, in-front of team-mate Leclerc who took fifth.
Both Red Bull’s Verstappen and McLaren’s Norris were sixth and seventh respectively as Racing Bulls Lindblad finished the day eighth.
Hadjar ended Free Practice 2 ninth in the other RB22 whilst Haas’s Ocon rounded out the top ten.
You can see the full Formula 1 Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix 2026 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2026 – PRACTICE 2
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