Australian GP: Verstappen trails Racing Bulls as Leclerc pips McLaren in FP2

Charles Leclerc beat the McLaren drivers to P1 in Friday’s second practice for the Australian Grand Prix in an intriguing session that saw Racing Bulls the faster of the Red Bull outfits.

While Leclerc once again won the Ferrari battle and Oscar Piastri edged ahead of Lando Norris, it was Yuki Tsunoda who was the fastest of the Red Bull quartet, with Isack Hadjar also ahead of Max Verstappen.

crashed in the earlier session, forcing his mechanics to not only repair the VF-25’s bodywork but also change the engine and gearbox.

Liam Lawson went wheel-to-wheel with the McLaren drivers to be the first driver out on track, Lando Norris putting wheels on the grass to edge ahead as they drove down the pit lane.

The Mercedes drivers left the pits on the hard Pirellis while everyone else ran the mediums, and Nico Hulkenberg left the pits with the fire extinguisher safety cover in the cockpit of his Sauber.

George Russell set the early pace with a 1:17.565, a tenth up on Lando Norris with Charles Leclerc third. As the racing continued, who said it was a practice session?, Carlos Sainz overtook Oscar Piastri on the track and then put in a 1:17.302 to sit P1.

As the drivers pushed to find the limits in the cars and the track, Norris had a huge rear-end twitch, Hulkenberg went flying through the Turn 6 gravel, Gasly visited the Turn 3 gravel and reported “I can’t brake” and Leclerc was annoyed as he was stuck behind Lawson.

Leclerc shrugged that off to go quickest with a 1:16.794, the first driver to break into the 1:16s on Friday. Lewis Hamilton moved up to second, four-tenths down on his team-mate.

Swapping to the soft tyres mid-session, Yuki Tsunoda went quickest with a 1:16.784, Lance Stroll went fourth and Kimi Antonelli had two big moments that left him down in 12th place. And then out came the heavy-hitters.

Max Verstappen aborted his lap after a moment at Turn 3, Norris hit the front with a 1:16.580 ahead of Tsunoda with Hamilton up to fourth. Verstappen was down in 10th place after his soft tyre lap.

Leclerc was the next of the front runners to swap to the red-walled tyres and went quickest on a 1:16.439. Piastri slotted into second, a tenth down.