Practice report

F1 Australian GP: Piastri quickest from Russell in FP3 as Bearman crashes again

Oscar Piastri heads a tight final practice from George Russell and Max Verstappen, which was briefly halted after Oliver Bearman crashed for the second time this weekend

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri topped a convoluted final practice for Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix ahead of George Russell and Max Verstappen, where Oliver Bearman crashed out again for Haas.

Under overcast skies at Albert Park, several frontrunners had headed out on the hard tyres before Bearman’s immediate incident, but when the one-hour session resumed with just 11 minutes gone they waited a little longer and then returned on the softs.

Esteban Ocon and Jack Doohan had short initial spells at the top of the times, before Verstappen shot ahead with a 1m17.632s as the Red Bull looked much improved early compared to Friday’s running.

Piastri then nipped to the top on a 1m17.298s before Verstappen edged much further clear with a 1m16.646s on his second run after 24 minutes.

This stood as the benchmark for over 10 minutes – as his rivals could not go quicker on their subsequent early efforts. But on Verstappen’s third run he suffered a rear slide at Turn 12, which suggested the RB21’s knife-edge handling remains a factor.

With just over 20 minutes to go, Russell toppled Verstappen with a 1m16.402s before Lando Norris came through to sit second with a lap that featured a big gravel strike exiting Turn 6.

Verstappen then used another new set of softs to shoot back to the top of the times with a 1m16.002s.

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

While Verstappen returned to the pits, Piastri used the same set of softs to get ahead on a 1m15.921s with just eight minutes remaining – after Norris had backed out of a lap due to a slide in dirty air from traffic at the penultimate corner.

As the clock ticked down, Verstappen abandoned a lap that looked to be going close with Piastri as he slid wildly exiting Turn 12 – albeit while running used softs at this stage, where Russell then squeezed between Piastri and the world champion.

He ended up 0.039s off the top spot, with the top three covered by just 0.081s.

FP2 leader Charles Leclerc finally got Ferrari up the order late on after going close midway through – as he complained about oversteer that was robbing him of confidence – and he failed to go any quicker with a second attempt on his final set of softs as the chequered flag flew.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was fifth ahead of Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda, while Norris ended up rounding out the top 10 in the other McLaren.

Bearman spun off on his first flying lap after missing all of FP2 as a result of his FP1 shunt at Turn 10, with his FP3 off occurring one corner on. The Briton put his left-side wheels on the grass and speared off backwards – getting beached in the gravel and unable to take any further part in the session.

Liam Lawson also missed most of FP3 as a pneumatic air issue on his engine struck on his first flying lap and he had to return to the pits from where he did not re-emerge.

F1 Australian GP - FP3 results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	Tyres	km/h
1	O. Piastri McLaren	81	McLaren	Mercedes	16	1'15.921			250.270
2	G. Russell Mercedes	63	Mercedes	Mercedes	17	+0.039 1'15.960	0.039		250.142
3	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	Red Bull	Red Bull	18	+0.081 1'16.002	0.042		250.003
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	Ferrari	Ferrari	22	+0.267 1'16.188	0.186		249.393
5	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12	Mercedes	Mercedes	20	+0.285 1'16.206	0.018		249.334
6	C. Sainz Williams	55	Williams	Mercedes	23	+0.331 1'16.252	0.046		249.184
7	A. Albon Williams	23	Williams	Mercedes	21	+0.337 1'16.258	0.006		249.164
8	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44	Ferrari	Ferrari	21	+0.457 1'16.378	0.120		248.773
9	Y. Tsunoda Racing Bulls	22	RB	Honda	17	+0.534 1'16.455	0.077		248.522
10	L. Norris McLaren	4	McLaren	Mercedes	20	+0.676 1'16.597	0.142		248.061
11	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5	Sauber	Ferrari	18	+0.786 1'16.707	0.110		247.706
12	P. Gasly Alpine	10	Alpine	Renault	22	+0.798 1'16.719	0.012		247.667
13	I. Hadjar Racing Bulls	6	RB	Honda	18	+0.811 1'16.732	0.013		247.625
14	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	Aston Martin	Mercedes	22	+1.027 1'16.948	0.216		246.930
15	J. Doohan Alpine	7	Alpine	Renault	18	+1.072 1'16.993	0.045		246.786
16	N. Hulkenberg Sauber	27	Sauber	Ferrari	15	+1.225 1'17.146	0.153		246.296
17	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	Aston Martin	Mercedes	22	+1.349 1'17.270	0.124		245.901
18	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31	Haas	Ferrari	18	+1.452 1'17.373	0.103		245.574
19	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87	Haas	Ferrari	2
20	L. Lawson Red Bull Racing	30	Red Bull	Red Bull	2
View full results