Charles Leclerc secures the fastest time in the second free practice session in Australia with a 0.2 second lead – Sebastian Vettel cannot take part in FT2 at all
Ferrari set the tone in Friday practice for the Australian Grand Prix. After Carlos Sainz had set the fastest time in FT1 ahead of Charles Leclerc, Leclerc reversed the order in FT2 to take the lead with a best time of the day of 1:18.978 minutes.
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) at least managed to split the two Ferraris in the second session. He drove several laps in a row on the soft C5 tyres and narrowly edged past Sainz (3rd/+0.398) in one of the later attempts. His gap to Leclerc: 0.245 seconds.
That was a conciliatory end after a difficult start. Verstappen had already radioed after a few minutes: “I still have the same problems. The car is incredibly neutral at high speed. I can’t get the car to turn in properly. ”
Verstappen fastest in the middle sector
Already after FT1, Helmut Marko had noticed: “We have to think about reducing top speed and going for more downforce.” This promptly had an effect: Verstappen drove absolute best time in the winding middle sector, was two tenths of a second faster than the two Ferraris there on 18 driving seconds.
Important for the classification of the lap times of the three top favourites: Leclerc drove his best time through the last sector despite a suboptimal line, and Verstappen also had to abort his fastest lap so far after setting a personal best in the first and absolute best in the second sector due to a small mistake.
“I had a car in front of me on my fast lap,” Verstappen reported. “In FT1 and at the beginning of FT2, the balance wasn’t right. It was better at the end. The Ferraris are damn quick again, but in the long run our car is pretty good. It’s going in the right direction. We have to build on that.”
Behind the top 3, Fernando Alonso (4./+0.559) lined up as the first chaser. Alpine will be racing in blue livery rather than pink from Australia. Sergio Perez (Red Bull/+0.680) was fifth, ahead of Esteban Ocon (Alpine/+1.077) and Lando Norris (McLaren/+1.122). Daniel Ricciardo in the second McLaren was tenth (+1.225).
McLaren satisfied: First progress at last
McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl is “very satisfied” with the season opener: “We saw from the first outing that we have made a step since Saudi Arabia. The more laps we do, the better we understand the car. We missed a lot of laps during testing. And in addition, this track suits our car better than Bahrain.”
Mercedes can’t say the same. George Russell finished eleventh in FT2, Lewis Hamilton 13th. Gaps: 1.2 and 1.5 seconds respectively. “The ‘porpoising’ in turn 9 is the worst I’ve ever experienced,” sighed Russell. “But it doesn’t help, we have to put up with it. Because we think that’s how we’re fastest. ”
#Magnussen braucht noch ein bisschen, um die Strecke zu verinnerlichen. Aber er war wieder schneller als #MickSchumacher, sein Teamkollege bei #HaasF1. In beiden Freitagstrainings beim #AUSGP. #F12022 #F1 #Formel1 pic.twitter.com/hOeQjTl2wO
— Christian Nimmervoll (@MST_ChristianN) April 8, 2022
“There are some midfield cars ahead of us. We’re a long way from the top,” admits Russell. “Because the car has felt good, it’s not bad on the track.” Hamilton sounds similarly disillusioned when he says: “No matter what we change on the car, it makes no difference. There’s nothing we can do. We just have to drive it. ”
Vettel: That’s why he couldn’t drive in FT2
Sebastian Vettel was unable to take part in the second practice session, by the way. The Mercedes engine on his Aston Martin had fouled up 15 minutes before the end of FT1. During the break, the damage was examined and it was determined that a change of the power unit was unavoidable. This took too long to be able to drive in FT2.
