Piastri was the fastest in practice for the Australian Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri closed out the Friday of the Australian Grand Prix with the best time of the day, a 1:19.729 which he set in the second practice session, ahead of the two Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. The first time the 2026-era cars ran in Grand Prix conditions saw four teams fighting at the front and serious problems for Aston Martin and Cadillac.

All the simulation and wind tunnel work collided with Albert Park from the very first lap. Electrical issues, sensor failures, unexpected brake lock-ups, and energy management that no one quite understands yet were the constant themes of a Friday where almost everyone spent more time troubleshooting in the garage than fine-tuning pure performance.

Charles Leclerc set the initial reference in FP1 with a 1:21.227, putting him almost half a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen placed third in an order that seemed stable until Isack Hadjar, in his first session as a Red Bull driver, briefly took the top spot before Leclerc reclaimed it. Piastri was relegated to sixth place because a lack of power in his McLaren cost him valuable track time, but in FP2 he resolved the issue and improved his best time by almost one and a half seconds to take the top position of the day. What truly drew attention, however, was what happened with Mercedes.

Photo By Mclaren

In FP1, Russell and Antonelli had finished seventh and eighth, more than a second behind Leclerc. Two hours later, Antonelli was the first driver to go under 1:20 and Russell also placed among the top three. Bradley Lord, Mercedes' head of communications, acknowledged that the first session was full of setup problems which they managed to resolve, and that the team will work hard overnight to continue in that direction.

Verstappen had the opposite kind of Friday. He came to a stop at the end of the pit lane at the start of FP2 due to a technical issue and lost the first 25 minutes. When he was finally able to get out, he managed a sixth-place time six-tenths off Piastri, but his final fast lap ended with a trip through the gravel at turn 10 which damaged the floor of his RB22. With only 13 laps completed in that session, Red Bull has less data than McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari to work with tonight, and that could prove costly in qualifying.

Fernando Alonso did not participate in FP1 because a suspected power unit issue kept him in the garage for the entire session, and when he finally did get out in FP2, he only managed one slow installation lap before returning without setting a meaningful time. Lance Stroll fared no better and could barely string together a few consecutive laps. The battery problems that have dogged the team since pre-season manifested in all their severity in Melbourne: Alonso ended up five seconds off the best time, Stroll over five seconds adrift. This isn't something that can be fixed with aerodynamic changes or the engineers' overnight work. It's a hardware problem that could affect the team's first races.

Cadillac also suffered in what was meant to be their debut as a Formula 1 team, because Valtteri Bottas managed to complete both sessions but was a long way off the pace, and Sergio Pérez only managed two laps in FP2 after a sensor failure kept him in the garage for almost the entire hour and a hydraulic problem left him stopped on track when he finally did get out.

Piastri was cautious about what these times mean. "There are so many things to learn with these cars," he said. "Everyone is going to find a big improvement from one day to the next." Rob Marshall, McLaren's chief designer, pointed out that energy management remains the biggest challenge and that the overnight work will determine who arrives best prepared for qualifying.

Photo By Mclaren

The midfield also showed interesting signs. Arvid Lindblad, with Racing Bulls, was fifth in FP1 and eighth in FP2 with a performance confirming that his pre-season pace was no fluke, and Haas with Esteban Ocon consistently positioned themselves as the sixth fastest team. Further back, Audi and Williams are fighting in the same zone and Alpine urgently needs to find pace.

The third practice session starts on Saturday at 12:30 PM local time in Melbourne, with qualifying in the afternoon. The first pole position of 2026 is up for grabs, and based on what this Friday showed, there are at least four teams that can fight for it.

Australian Grand Prix FP2

Pos	Nº	Piloto	Equipo	Mejor Tiempo	Vueltas
1	#81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	-	26
2	#12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	0.214s	31
3	#63	George Russell	Mercedes	0.106s	28
4	#44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	0.001s	32
5	#16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	0.241s	30
6	#3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	0.075s	13
7	#1	Lando Norris	McLaren	0.428s	29
8	#41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	0.128s	30
9	#6	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull Racing	0.019s	28
10	#31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	0.238s	29
11	#87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	0.147s	31
12	#27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	0.025s	34
13	#30	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	0.007s	29
14	#5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	0.310s	28
15	#23	Alexander Albon	Williams	0.179s	32
16	#10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	0.320s	16
17	#55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	0.086s	10
18	#43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	0.366s	27
19	#77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	1.041s	28
20	#14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1.002s	18
21	#18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1.154s	13
22	#11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	-	2