Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fastest in FP2 at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday. PHOTO: Ferrari

BRENDAN LINES APRIL 8, 2022

CHARLES Leclerc topped the timesheets in FP2, securing consecutive fastest finishes for Ferrari, stamping the Scuderia’s authority on both Friday’s practice sessions.

As smatterings of light rain swept across Albert Park, Carlos Sainz was first to post sub-one-minute 19 times on medium and soft tyres, then Charles Leclerc made his run setting a new fastest lap record of 1:18.978s

Rear-end issues plagued Red Bull in the early stages as both the cars of Max Verstappen (P2)  and Sergio Perez (P5) returned to the garages after their first runs.

Verstappen fired in a sub-one-minute 19 lap in response to Ferrari’s challenge, and on a soft tyre run towards the end of the session the reigning world champion split the Ferrari’s.

McLaren’s signs of improvement carried over from FP1, Lando Norris (P8) and Daniel Ricciardo (P10) were again on the pace posting consecutive top-ten placings across both sessions.. 

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was the big improver, his fastest lap was +0.559 off Leclerc’s time and  was enough to seal P4, contrasting with his FP1 performance finishing P9. 

Mercedes’ woes continued, trailing more than +1.2s off the fastest time, making it successive finishes for Lewis Hamilton (P13) and George Russell (P11) outside of the top ten in both Friday’s sessions.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was unable to post a time, his AMR22 needing an engine replacement after the earlier session.

FP3 for the Australian Grand Prix begins at 1pm local time, on Saturday.

FULL RESULTS

1	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:18.978	Split	27 Laps
2	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING RBPT	1:19.223	+0.245s	22
3	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	1:19.376	+0.398s	27
4	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	1:19.537	+0.559s	22
5	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING RBPT	1:19.658	+0.680s	20
6	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	1:19.842	+0.864s	25
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	1:20.055	+1.077s	25
8	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:20.100	+1.122s	24
9	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI RBPT	1:20.142	+1.164s	27
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:20.203	+1.225s	24
11	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	1:20.212	+1.234s	25
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI RBPT	1:20.424	+1.446s	30
13	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:20.521	+1.543s	23
14	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:20.611	+1.633s	28
15	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	1:21.063	+2.085s	23
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:21.191	+2.213s	23
17	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:21.912	+2.934s	28
18	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	1:21.974	+2.996s	22
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:22.307	+3.329s	24