Leclerc comfortably leads second practice in Melbourne for Ferrari

Charles Leclerc set the pace for Ferrari in Friday’s second practice in Melbourne, the Scuderia driver edging Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by a 0.381s while Carlos Sainz completed the top three.

Behind the leading trio, the Aston Martin pair of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso made good progress in FP2 as they rounded off the top five.

However, it was mixed bag over at Mercedes, with George Russell setting the sixth fastest lap while Lewis Hamilton was left stranded all the way down in P18.

• Australian Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results

The field headed out on track for its second workout of the day, but minus one of its own as Alex Albon was ruled out of the session following his heavy crash in FP1 that left his Williams FW46 significantly damaged and unrepairable in time for FP2.

Honorary Aussie Valtteri Bottas was the first to kick into action, the Sauber driver followed by a string of cars, including Perez who put the first time on the board.

Leclerc moved to the top spot while Logan Sargeant suffered a harmless spun, much to the relief of his Williams team. But it was anear miss for the American.

All drivers appeared to rely on the medium compound for their early laps, until Alonso bolted on a set of softs and jumped to P2 behind Leclerc.

It was a late entry for Verstappen who finally emerged from the Red Bull garage after 25 minutes after the Milton Keynes-based outfit’s crews completed a floor replacement on the Dutchman’s RB20.

Up ahead, Leclerc’s earlier 1m17.423s flyer was holding strong, the Scuderia driver followed by the Aston Martin pair of Stroll and Alonso, with Russell and Sainz further behind.

As qualifying simulations kicked in, Hamilton also switched to the softs. But the Mercedes driver bailed out of his first flyer and failed to improve on his second effort, the Briton remaining well down the order in P18.

Meanwhile, Ferrari was looking increasingly good at the front of the field, as Sainz moved up to second but 0.430s adrift from Leclerc.

But a soft-shod Verstappen crept up on his rivals, the Red Bull driver setting the third fastest lap but an identical time to Sainz!

With 15 minutes left on the clock, the Dutchman pressed on and managed to get within 0.381s of Leclerc before retreating to his team’s garage, his soft rubber running done for the day.

There was some trepidation in the Ferrari camp in the closing stages of the session when Leclerc suffered a snap of oversteer into Turn 1 and was forced to cut across the grass.

But the day’s running ended with Ferrari and the Monegasque comfortably on top, with Verstappen and Sainz completing the top three.

A productive session for Aston saw Stroll and Alonso round off the top five. Russell followed thereafter but there was no sign of Hamilton among the top ten, perhaps a worrying sign for Mercedes.

In P7, Oscar Piastri was the fastest McLaren driver, the local hero edging Perez, Norris and Yuki Tsunoda who closed out the top ten, the Japanese driver outpacing once again his RB teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

While Sargeant enjoyed a reasonably good session for Williams which he concluded in P13, Alpine, Sauber and Haas were the unsurprising laggards, with Hamilton sat in P18 the odd man out among the lower tier runners.

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