At the beginning of the new Formula 1 era in Australia, local hero Oscar Piastri set the first fastest time of the day.
The McLaren driver from Melbourne completed the second training session at the Albert Park Circuit in 1:19.729 minutes as the leader of the classification.
Behind Piastri, who came third in the World Championship last season, Kimi Antonelli finished second in the Mercedes (+0.214 seconds). Antonelli’s teammate George Russell finished the one-hour session at the Australian Grand Prix right behind in third place (+0.320 seconds).
Hülkenberg in twelfth place
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen in Red Bull came sixth. The only German driver in the field, Nico Hülkenberg, ended up twelfth in Audi’s debut as a works team.
World champion Norris complains about Transmission problems
The second McLaren driver Lando Norris, who became the 35th world champion in Formula 1 history last season, ultimately had to settle for seventh place after gearbox problems in the first training session.
A few seconds after the first one-hour session of the day was released, an Audi was the first car to turn onto the track. Hülkenberg drove the R26 on the 5.278 kilometer long circuit. Audi took over the Swiss Sauber racing team and is competing as a works team for the first time this season.
Expectations from the German manufacturer are high ahead of the first Grand Prix of the season on Sunday (starts at 5 a.m. German time) – the first two training sessions were promising for the Ingolstadt-based company in terms of reliability.
Expected disaster at Aston Martin
For Aston Martin, however, things turned out to be about as bad as feared on Friday. The team had previously admitted major problems with the power unit, and the strong vibrations could even lead to nerve damage in the drivers’ hands. This ongoing problem is “sucking all the energy” out of the team, boss Adrian Newey said on Friday, he himself feels “powerless” and former world champion Fernando Alonso is “in a difficult mental state”.
Neither of them drove at all at midday, but in the afternoon they managed a double-digit number of laps. With a gap of more than 5 seconds, it is currently questionable whether they can even achieve the necessary lap times to take part in the race.
The chaos stays away
Formula 1 has adopted new regulations starting this season. This means the cars are shorter, narrower and lighter. A good 50 percent of the engines are powered by combustion engines. The battery provides the remaining almost 50 percent power. Verstappen & Co. will be called upon to implement permanent energy management in the future.
In the first two training sessions, the drivers repeatedly complained about a lack of power, and there were also safety car phases due to spins, but there was no feared chaos. That could change in qualifying and ultimately in the race.
