Fernando Alonso put his early dry weather running to good use to top second practice at Albert Park on Friday, with rain leaving his time of 1:18.887 untouchable thereafter.
The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team used the medium tyre to set the pace, 0.445 seconds clear of Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Max Verstappen, fastest in the dry first session earlier in the day, was third for Oracle Red Bull Racing, 0.615 seconds down on Alonso.
Rain just before the quarter hour mark sent drivers scurrying back to the pits, with those who did brave an extra lap or two finding conditions tricky. Alonso and McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris both went off at turn one, while Lance Stroll touched the wall at turn nine.
Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. both ventured out on soft tyres just after the half hour mark but returned to the pits straightaway as conditions were still too wet for slicks, while George Russell did likewise for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team but on intermediates, the Briton feeling the conditions also did not suit that compound.
The track conditions never improved enough to see times from before the rain shower threatened, meaning the top three of Alonso, Leclerc and Verstappen finished ahead of Russell, Sainz and BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon.
Perhaps the unluckiest driver prior to the rain shower was Sergio Pérez, the Mexican well on course to beat Alonso’s best time only for the Red Bull driver to encounter Zhou Guanyu between turns nine and ten. He ended up only seventh fastest ahead of Norris, while MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hülkenberg and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly completed the top ten.
Just outside the top ten sat Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, the Japanese driver hoping to score his and his team’s first points of the season this weekend, while Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake’s Valtteri Bottas was twelfth ahead of his former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Oscar Piastri placed fourteenth in the second McLaren ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou, with Stroll only sixteenth in the second Aston Martin. Nyck de Vries was next up for AlphaTauri ahead of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon, while Kevin Magnussen was again the slowest of the drivers who set a lap time in nineteenth.
Unfortunately, following his first session stoppage for what appeared to be an electrical problem, Logan Sargeant did not take to the track in the second session, the American stuck in the pits as his Williams mechanics worked on fixing his car.
