Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Friday Round Up- Australia

Round 3 of the 2024 Season and we return to the Amazing Albert Park Street Track in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix. Verstappen's dominance has continued this year so far but the battle behind him is closer than ever. Carlos Sainz was back in the car just 13 days after he had surgery for Appendicitis forced him to withdraw from the Jeddah Grand Prix Weekend. 

Practice 1

Most of the cars were straight out, with just the Williams cars, the 2 HAAS cars and Sainz waiting in the garage. The first laps were set on the Medium tyre for everyone  but Perez & Leclerc who started by running the Softs. Most teams chose to begin the session doing their long running and race simulation runs. Piastri showed great long run pace in his Mclaren.
​45 minutes to go Verstappen topped the times on the soft tyres with a 1'18.670. Leclerc was 2nd +0.440 and Perez was 3rd +0.568

Alonso had a big moment in the chicane of turn 10 skipping over the gravel trap, avoiding the wall and carrying on but needing to replace the floor of the car because of damage, he will defiantly be nervous taking his Aston Martin through there for the rest of the weekend.
30 minutes to go Norris went fastest on the Soft tyres 1'18.564 a tenth up on Verstappen's best so far. Stroll was having better luck than his team mate, putting his car 2nd fastest ahead of Verstappen but a 0.103 behind Norris after changing to the Sofy tyres. It wasn't just Stroll who had put Soft tyres on will all the cars gradually switching to the faster rubber. 
20 minutes on the clock Russell and Bottas both had a moment at turn 10  just before we saw the session Red flagged for a big incident for Williams driver Alex Albon. To much kerb at turn 7 destabilized the car throwing the Albon out of the corner and into the wall.  

9 minutes to go and all 20 cars took to the track to try and capitalize on the time left, Hamilton was the first man around to start a flying lap on the soft tyres but he bailed on the lap to go again, Max Verstappen also abandoned a lap because of a mistake in his Redbull.
Leclerc went 2nd fastest just 0.035 off Norris, Tsunoda went 3rd fastest in the closing minutes of the session and just as the Chequered flag was flown Verstappen went 2nd fastest 0.018 off the Mclaren time of 1'18.564. Russell jumped to 3rd fastest on his last run, Sainz managed 8th in hisi first session back after his surgery 13 days ago.
Piastri could only manage 10th despite the Mclaren showing real pace especially on his long runs with the data showing strong race pace for Sundays Grand Prix 

Practice 1 Result 

1 NOR 1'18.564   2 VER +0.018
3 RUS +0.033     4 LEC +0.035
5 TSU +0.057      6 PER +0.078
7 STR +0.103      8 SAI +0.122
​9 HAM +0.107     10 PIA +0.354
11 RIC +0.710     12 ALB +0.879
13 MAG +0.925   14 SAR +0.955
15 OCO +0.997   16 HUL +1.040
17 GAS +1.058    18 ALO +1.152
19 ZHO +1.425    20 BOT +1.450

Practice 2 

Most of the cars came straight out of their garages on to a track surrounded by a sell out crowd for the 1st time on a Friday at Albert Park except for Max Verstappen who was still in the pits as the Redbull crew fixed floor damage he sustained in the morning Practice session. Also  Alex Albon would not be taking part in the session as the Williams mechanics desperately tried to get the car back to working order after his big crash in Practice 2. Norris, Sainz and Russell also waited to join the others on the track. Leclerc went 2nd fastest on his first lap only slower than Alonso, Piastri briefly stole the top spot from Alonso before he took it back on his next lap. 
50 minutes to go Russell and Norris set their first laps of the day with Norris going 2nd fastest and Russell 6th, while his team mate Lewis Hamilton was down in 18th. Gasly and Sargeant had a few solid laps putting themselves up to 6th & 7th early on in the session. 

Leclerc and Perez were the next to go top, the Ferrari man beating Perez by 4 tenths of a second as a recovering Sainz put his Ferrari 6th. Sargeant had a big moment at turn 11 where he over cooked his entry to turn 11 and spun after touching the gravel very nearly crashing the only surviving Williams Car. 
40 minutes to go most of the cars were in the garage preparing for their next runs, Alonso was the first man to put the soft tyres on as he ran out of sink to the other cars to try and get his Qualifying Simulations done on an empty track. Stroll also struggled on his new soft tyres on his first lap spinning at the final corner before going again and topping the times.
34 minutes on the clock Verstappen was out of the pits after repairs to his floor kept him garage bound, Piastri could only mange 4th fastest on his 1st soft tyre run, 

Hamilton was still struggling down in 15th 1 place behind team mate Russell in 14th till he put together a lap to go 4th fastest. Verstappen wasn't having a great session after he joined the running late, his best with 26 minutes left of Practice was only good enough for 9th. 
25 to go all the cars were running the Soft tyre except Hamilton, Verstappen and Magnussen. Leclerc was top by just under half a second over team mate Carlos Sainz and the 2 Aston Martins in 3rd & 4th. 
18 minutes left Verstappen did his first soft tyre run and we got our first look at if the Ferrari's could take the fight to the dominant Redbull in Qualifying. Max could only manage 3rd, slower than the lead Ferrari by 0.430 seconds. On his 2nd attempt Verstappen still couldn't get his Redbull within 0.381secinds of Leclerc in 1st

The last 10 minutes of the session were spent doing long run data collection runs for all the teams with the Mclaren's again looking very strong on race pace. Hamilton was back out after suffering damage to his wheels cake tin, but he still couldn't find any decent pace and was down in 18th while his team mate Russell was up in 6th. Leclerc had a close call at turn 1 touching the gravel but managing to travel over the grass and rejoin the track. Stroll also visited the grass on the edge of the track at turn 10 saving it before he hit the wall. 
As the Chequered flag fell the standings hadn't changed in the last 10 minutes of Practice. Leclerc looked on another level in his Ferrari and optimistic to put his car on Pole tomorrow, Verstappen had a very frustrating session and there is a lot more speed to be found in that Redbull, both Mclaren's were fast over 1 lap and many making them look like Challengers for Qualifing and the race. The 2 Mercedes drivers just don't seem happy with their cars. 
We end the day with the hunt for Pole at Albert Park wide open.   

Practice 2 Results 

1 LEC  1'17.277
​2 VER +0.381
3 SAI +0.430
4 STR +0.545
5 ALO +0.635
6 RUS +0.674
7 PIA +0.800
8 PER +0.813
9 NOR +0.878
10 TSU +0.911
11 ZHO +1.144
​12 RIC +1.257
13 SAR +1.301
14 BOT +1.308
15 GAS +1.414
16 HUL +1.425
17 OCO +1.428
18 HAM +1.557
19 MAG +1.998
20 ALB DNP

Later in the day it was announced by Williams that they would be withdrawing Sargeant from the Grand Prix weekend, the team did not have a 3rd chassis at the circuit and with Albon's damaged beyond repair the team would need to give Sargeant's car and components to Albon as the best chance the team have to 1/ not crash again through the weekend 2/ Score points on Sunday. Sargeant was gutted but supportive of the teams choice to prioritize the running to just Albon

Joanna Blackmore 
Writer @f1journal.co.uk