This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.
That brings a lively first practice session to an end. Here’s our report.
Albon gives his car’s floor some pain by running wide on the kerb at turn 10, a piece appeared to come off the FW47.
Russell has spun off at turn four which is an unusua place to see a car next to a barrier. It swapped ends on him when he touched the grass on the way in. He seemed not to hit anything and is on his way again.
Norris brings Sainz’s time at the top to and end as he produces a 1’17.252 in his McLaren to go quickest by 0.149 seconds.
Fernando Alonso switches from mediums to softs and finds three-tenths of a second which moves his Aston Martin up to eighth, though he appeared to have a fair bit of understeer in turn 10.
Alexander Albon goes up to sixth place in the other Williams, half a second off his pace-setting team mate.
Tsunoda overtook Norris at the final corner as the McLaren driver was preparing to begin a lap. They swap places over the next two corners, the upshot being both drivers have compromised their laps.
The session has resumed. Hamilton and Norris are on softs, Verstappen on mediums so don’t expect to see an improvement from the world champion.
The second red flag has been significantly longer than the first, though that’s to be expected as Bearman smashed the left-hand side of his Haas quite badly. The drivers are heading to the pit exit now though with 12 minutes left.
Away from the track, Aston Martin has announced it has started using the new wind tunnel it built at its Silverstone base – just two weeks after star technical hiring Adrian Newey joined the team.
Verstappen encountered Sainz at turn six earlier and told his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase: “That was dangerous.”
Oliver Bearman has hit the wall after running wide at the exit of turn 10. He appears to be alright and is out of his car.
The session has been red-flagged again.
It gets even better for last year’s winner as Sainz improves to a 1’17.401 which puts the Williams on top, a tenth of a second off the best time from Friday last year.
Carlos Sainz Jnr has also done a lap on the softs which will give Williams some encouragement as he’s only two-tenths of a second off Verstappen in fourth place.
We’ve got changes at the top of the times now as drivers swap the medium tyre compound for softs. Verstappen sets a 1’17.696, that’s four-tenths of a second off the best time from Friday last year, and Russell is only two hundredths of a second behind him. The Mercedes driver was asking for help improving his car’s balance in the high-speed corners before he came in.
We did have some ducks on the track during one of the Supercars support races yesterday, fortunately none of them seemed to be hurt, hopefully it wasn’t a repeat of that.
The FIA say the red flag was for debris, noting “it seems it came from a car”, so perhaps there was something besides the gravel which the cameras did not pick up on.
All 20 cars have set times so far and Sauber are clearly at the bottom of the pecking order as it stands. The session is about to restart.
The session has been red-flagged. There’s a build-up of gravel at turn six where Jack Doohan, Max Verstappen and others have run wide.
Top times so far:
1. Charles Leclerc: 1’17.880
2. George Russell: 1’18.030
3. Isack Hadjar: 1’18.218
4. Lando Norris: 1’18.253
5. Max Verstappen: 1’18.325
Melburnian Oscar Piastri has just fallen out of the top 10 as he rejoins the track now in his McLaren.
Another of the new names appears near the top of the times – Isack Hadjar goes third for the team now officially known as Racing Bulls, which went by the initials RB last year.
Newcomer Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who is running the camber-exaggerating onboard camera in this session, is a second off the pace so far in 13th.
We’re a quarter of an hour in and Leclerc still leads the way. He’s in the pits at the moment, while George Russell pops up into second place, 0.15 seconds off the Ferrari.
Another improvement from Leclerc brings the top time down to a 1’17.880 so we’re already well under last year’s best time from this session. That six-tenths of a second off the best time from second practice.
Charles Leclerc now takes over at the top with a 1’18.317, followed by the McLaren pair. Only Nico Hulkenberg and Alexander Albon are yet to set times.
Liam Lawson glanced the wall with the right-hand side of his car on the way into turn nine.
Max Verstappen puts up a 1’19.771 to lead the early running, which is 1.2 seconds off the best time seen in this session last year, set by Norris.
Lando Norris immediately touches the grass at turn five as he tries to pass a car ahead. No harm done and he makes his way past.
The cars head out for the first time.
Melbourne is the scene of the season-opener for the first time since 2019 – it was supposed to open the 2020 championship before the Covid-19 pandemic changed that.
It’s finally time to get a glimpse of the real pecking order as all 20 cars prepare to take to the track together for the first time this year.
The first practice session for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 Australian Grand Prix
- Lawson admits he was “too slow” after ending practice 17th
- ‘There’s 24 Fridays and you can ask me anything, I won’t answer’ – Alonso
- Leclerc leads McLarens as Bearman misses second practice
- Vasseur has no doubt Hamilton will be able to “perform soon” at Ferrari
- Live: 2025 Australian Grand Prix second practice
