Piastri fastest, then Antonelli and Russell ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc

Oscar Piastri is the fastest driver of the Friday free practice of the 2026 Australian GP in Melbourne. After a somewhat hidden start to the day, the teams with the Mercedes engine instead turned up the horsepower in FP2, taking the top three positions: at the lead, however, is not the bookmakers’ big favorite George Russell, but the young home crowd idol Piastri, good at stopping the clocks with the fastest time of 1:19.729 at the wheel of the McLaren MCL40. Behind him the two official Mercedes with Andrea Kimi Antonelli just over a tenth ahead of teammate Russell.

Read more 2026 Australian GP – FP2 Classification: McLaren is back. Piastri leader ahead of the Mercedes, then Hamilton and Leclerc

The Ferraris are still there in the area, even without repeating the excellent start of FP1 with the one-two at the top of the standings: Lewis Hamilton is in fact fourth, 3 tenths from the top, with Charles Leclerc in fifth place, but half a second from the leader. Sixth time instead for Max Verstappen, who lost the first part of the session due to a technical problem that forced him to park his Red Bull in the pit lane. Lando Norris remains a bit more tight-lipped: the world champion, who lost almost the entire session in the first free practice due to a gearbox problem, is seventh with a 1-second gap from his teammate.

Finally, the two Aston Martins were seen back on track, albeit with limited mileage that does not dispel the reliability problems of the Honda engine and is indeed a reflection of the delicate moment: Fernando Alonso covered 18 laps, with Lance Stroll at 13. No time for Sergio Perez, who stopped on track with his Cadillac shortly after leaving the pits.

F1 returns to the track tomorrow, Saturday, March 7, with free practice 3 scheduled for 2:30 AM and the highly anticipated qualifying at 6:00 AM Italian time. Both sessions will be covered as always live, minute by minute, on FormulaPassion.it.

F1 Melbourne, race hub: all useful links

To best follow the live coverage of free practice 2 of the Australian F1 GP, here are all the useful links for the race weekend in Melbourne, the first round of the 2026 World Championship:

• TV times – The weekend schedule
• Weather – What the weather is like in Melbourne
• Preview – The themes of the weekend
• LIVE – The session report
• Results – The session classification
• Last year – How it went in 2025
• Calendar – All F1 2025 stages
• Driver Standings – After the 2025 season
• Constructor Standings – After the 2025 season

F1, the live report of the Australian GP FP2

07.05 – Our live coverage for today ends here as well, although the work is far from over: on FormulaPassion throughout the day you will still find many news items, comments, statements, and analyses regarding this first Friday of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Around 9:00 AM, the new episode of WarmUp, our daily press review with news from the paddock, will also be released on all podcast platforms, where there will inevitably be a comment on what was seen on track in Melbourne tonight and this morning. Below, meanwhile, is the latest available episode (which currently remains yesterday’s after the Thursday press conferences). Give it a chance and you won’t regret it. Have a good day, bye!

07.02 – The final classification of the 2026 Australian GP FP2:

07.00 – Checkered flag: free practice 2 of the Australian GP ends here and, therefore, also the first Friday of this 2026 Formula 1 season.

06.59 – Speaking of mistakes, Charles Leclerc also makes one, going wide into the gravel at Turn-3, as both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton did a few minutes ago.

06.57 – Mistake also for Isack Hadjar, who thus continues to shadow teammate Verstappen very closely: the French driver went very wide at Turn-13, going onto the grass before returning to the track.

06.56 – The very fast Australian marshals have already pushed Perez’s Cadillac off the track, and so we are back in green flag conditions, with the drivers able to continue pushing in their long runs.

06.55 – Sergio Perez had just come out of the pits for his first lap of the day, but then the Mexican immediately had to park outside Turn-11. Virtual Safety Car.

06.52 – Continuing to look at Russell’s race pace, there is still a super long run to note from the Englishman, who remains very consistent in the mid-to-high 1:23s. A small mistake also for Charles Leclerc, who starts his long run on a 1:24.4 but then goes wide at Turn-1 going onto the grass.

06.50 – Spectacular off-track excursion for Max Verstappen, who went wide at the fast chicane of Turn-10, even losing a couple of pieces of carbon from his Red Bull while jumping over the gravel. Max did not return to the pits, however, despite the damage to the floor of his RB22.

06.48 – After only one fast attempt with the Softs, Max Verstappen returned to work with the Mediums to simulate a long run. Same for Hamilton and Leclerc, who now return to the track with the Hards.

06.45 – The two Mercedes, meanwhile, are running very consistently in the low 1:24s in race simulation. Russell, however, has now even surpassed himself, dropping into the mid-to-low 1:23s.

06.43 – Lando Norris’s first lap with the Softs this season isn’t great: the Englishman is 7th, one second behind his teammate, but it’s not certain he doesn’t still have plenty of fuel on board to make many more attempts with this tire.

06.41 – Lando Norris returns to the track with his number 1 McLaren and new Soft tires: will he be able to repeat the times of teammate Oscar Piastri?

06.40 – We also have a timed lap for Fernando Alonso, who takes the 20th and third-to-last time, with an eight-tenth advantage over Lance Stroll – for what it’s worth – and with over a 5-second gap from Piastri. The only one still at zero laps is Sergio Perez.

06.38 – New Soft tires for Max Verstappen, who takes the sixth time, paying a 6-tenth gap to Piastri. Meanwhile, there is a mistake for Lewis Hamilton, who was pushing for his second flying lap but went into the gravel at Turn-3, in a manner very similar to what Russell showed a few minutes ago.

06.37 – The timing monitor lights up again like a decidedly out-of-season Christmas tree: Charles Leclerc sets the record in the second sector