Fernando Alonso set the pace on a chaotic Friday in Melbourne at the Australian Grand Prix. Wet weather in second practice means the pecking order it not entirely clear because no qualifying simulations were on the soft tyres. Championship leader Max Verstappen was fastest in FP1 but had a couple of hairy moments as he had a trip through the gravel and a spin at Turn 4.
Fernando Alonso was fastest in a rain-affected second practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
Alonso beat Charles Leclerc by 0.445 seconds, with Max Verstappen a further 0.170 further adrift, although all the best lap times were set on the medium tyres as rain meant the normal qualifying simulations were not conducted.
George Russell was fourth for Mercedes, while Lewis Hamilton struggled with setup so was down in 13th place.
“It was a good Friday for us and nice to be back in Australia,” said Alonso. “In FP1, we concentrated on some test items and ran through our programme smoothly.
“The afternoon was obviously impacted by the rain, so there is still some work to do tomorrow. We need to learn more about the tyres and the long-run pace of the car because there was not much time for that today.
“So far, though, the car seems to behave well. The forecast tomorrow looks dry for now, and we would welcome that given we only experienced these conditions in the previous two races.”
Alonso’s FP2 time was slower than the fastest lap in FP1, which was set by Verstappen.
The championship leader had a trip through the gravel in a manic first practice, as well as a big spin at Turn 4.
Team-mate Sergio Perez also went into the gravel, with Hamilton having a massive moment at the high-speed left-hander at Turn 11.
Yuki Tsunoda got away with a big spin at the first chicane as he just avoided the barriers, and there were also two red flags for a GPS system problem and an electrical issue for Logan Sargeant.
“This morning was good, this afternoon wasn’t so good,” said Hamilton about his day.
“It felt a little bit better this morning. We made some changes, they didn’t work, so we’ll revise those tonight, and then it rained off. So it wasn’t the greatest of sessions.
“I don’t think we’ll be competing against the Red Bulls. It’ll just be about trying to see if we can get up as high as possible. So I think we’ve got pace to be around fifth [place] area, same as the last race.”
Russell appeared to be happier with his day, but agreed with Hamilton’s prediction of Mercedes being in the fight for fifth.
“We just made a lot of setup changes over the break, we’ve been doing some good steps recently, we’ve been changing quite a few things and getting the car into a nice window as the weekend progresses,” commented Russell to media.
“That’s quite satisfying sat in the drivers seat, knowing that the car feels better and as a team we’ve contributed towards that. We’ll see how it translates into tomorrow, but in FP1 I wasn’t very happy with the car and in FP2 I was really happy.”
