London
\nFerrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in FP2 ahead of Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen and Scuderia team mate Carlos Sainz on Friday at the Australian Grand Prix.
\nClouds unfurled over Albert Park for FP2 bringing a heightened but ultimately unrealised risk of rain. Medium-tyred runs came first, FP1 leader Sainz setting the early pace, before softs were equipped and Leclerc shot to P1.
\nVerstappen jumped to second with under 20 minutes left, his opening soft-tyred runs compromised by traffic, then a lock-up in Sector 3 before the Dutchman finally managed a more representative lap on worn tyres to finish 0.245s off Leclerc \u2013 and drop Sainz to third.
\nAlpine\u2019s Fernando Alonso put in a blistering lap to take P4 at Sergio Perez\u2019s expense, while Alonso\u2019s team mate Esteban Ocon was sixth \u2013 but three-tenths down on the two-time champion.
\nValtteri Bottas\u2019s medium tyre pace was strong but he dropped to seventh for Alfa Romeo when softs were equipped, finishing ahead of McLaren\u2019s Lando Norris. Norris\u2019s team mate Daniel Ricciardo managed P10 \u2013 AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly splitting the papaya-coloured cars on the leaderboard.
\nIn P11 was Mercedes\u2019 George Russell while Lewis Hamilton took P13 for the constructors\u2019 champions, with Yuki Tsunoda putting his AlphaTauri between the pair.
\nLance Stroll brought out the only red flag of the session when a piece of his Aston Martin\u2019s wheel cover flew off with 10 minutes remaining. The Canadian finished 14th ahead of Alfa Romeo\u2019s rookie Zhou Guanyu.
\nKevin Magnussen took 16th having struggled for mileage in FP1. Williams\u2019 duo \u2013 Alex Albon in 17th and Nicholas Latifi in 19th \u2013 were split by Magnussen\u2019s Haas team mate Mick Schumacher in 18th.
\nSebastian Vettel\u2019s FP1 session ended prematurely with smoke coming out of his AMR22 \u2013 the four-time champion turning fireman then scooter driver with a post-session lap of the circuit. Vettel didn\u2019t emerge for FP2 and therefore ended up 20th, without a time on the board \u2013 the team having had to replace his Mercedes power unit.
\nThe 2022 Australian Grand Prix weekend continues on Saturday with FP3 at 1300 local time, before an all-important qualifying session at 1600 local time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in FP2 ahead of Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen and Scuderia team mate Carlos Sainz on Friday at the Australian Grand Prix. Clouds unfurled over Albert Park for FP2 bringing a heightened but ultimately unrealised risk of rain. Medium-tyred runs came first, FP1 leader Sainz setting the early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5766,5767,5768,5769],"class_list":{"0":"post-253861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-australian","9":"tag-gp-practice-session","10":"tag-leclerc","11":"tag-verstappen"},"yoast_head":"\n