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Formula 1
Australian GP
F1 Australian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2
Friday's action from the third round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
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Max Verstappen and Red Bull have dominated the opening two weekends of the season with Sergio Perez following his team-mate home in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
All eyes will be on Carlos Sainz on Friday with the Ferrari driver set to take part in the sessions before a final call is made on whether he or super-sub Oliver Bearman will contest the remainder of the weekend.
First practice begins at 1:30am GMT (12:30pm local time) followed by second practice at 5am GMT (4pm local time).
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Lights green
FP2 is go!
We have two minutes before the lights go green as Albon can be seen looking at his destroyed Williams.
The music has played, the energy is up, and we're ready to go for one final hour of action on Friday morning!
But at RB, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo enjoyed a strong showing, with the pair fifth and 11th. Will the pace remain as the sandbags begin to come off?
George Russell registered a late effort in FP1 to put himself third in a session that had seen both he and team-mate Lewis Hamilton spend the majority of the time on the fringes of the top 10.
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Confirming the situation for FP2, Williams said: "Further to Alex’s accident in FP1, we can confirm that he will not participate in FP2 while we continue to assess the damage. Alex was uninjured in the incident."
Lando Norris was the fastest driver in the earlier session from Max Verstappen, but the big news involved Alex Albon and a heavy crash.
Good morning and welcome back to Melbourne for FP2 at the Australian Grand Prix.
We're taking a break now before FP2 begins. For European fans, that's due to start in just over two hours from now (at 5am GMT), so you've got time for a bit more sleep, while down at Williams it will be all hands on deck as they repair Albon's car. Back in a bit.
Breaking news
Here's the full report on that eventful opening session of the Australian GP weekend: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-australian-gp-norris-fastest-in-fp1-as-albon-brings-out-red-flag/10589736/
Verstappen was among those not looking particularly comfortable in that session, so perhaps a tiniest glint of hope for some of Red Bull's rivals? We'll perhaps have a better idea if that's the case after FP2 later.
Albon's shunt and various other offs are a reminder that this Albert Park track can bite with Hamilton the latest to report he "might have damage to the floor" after a moment on the Turn 10 kerbs.
So, first blood goes to Norris and McLaren with just three tenths splitting the top 10. That bodes well for qualifying at least!
Oh, and perhaps some pace from Mercedes now! Russell moves up to third, but there are no other late improvements.
Verstappen closes to within 0.018s of Norris but can't quite knock the McLaren off tops pot at the end there.
Checkered flag
And there we go, chequered flag is out after a messy and disrupted session!
Hamilton is now up to ninth after his latest effort, while it's now the Saubers that are bringing up the rear of the field.
There was a bit of contact in the pits on the restart a few minutes ago! Hulkenberg clunked the Sainz in the slowest speed collision you could imagine!
Replays show Perez had an almighty lock-up into Turn 13 just then as we caught the end of that moment previously.
Russell, meanwhile, has moved up to seventh with his first true run on the softs.
Verstappen has a wide moment at Turn 10 now and has a trip over the rumble strips, while Perez gets it wrong at the penultimate corner. Albert Park is proving a tricky one to tame here!
Sainz is the first to improve after that pause and climbs to eighth and is now three tenths slower than his team-mate as he continues his comeback.
He keeps it out of the barriers, but the wind could perhaps be a contributing factor in some of these offs.
Yellow flag
Oh, and Hamilton's off immediately! He gets it wrong at Turn 1 and has to bounce across the grass!
Everyone bas now headed back out, including Alonso - whose Aston mechanics had a bit more time to replace the floor during that delay.
A whole queue of cars had formed at the end of the pitlane but it was the two Alpines that just about manoeuvred themselves into the head of the queue.
Green flag
And we're now back under way! Ten minutes of the session remain and will anyone knock Norris off top spot?
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"Muchos debris," reported Norris as he delicately made his way through the complete mess on the track in front of him. The McLaren man was also keen to know if the Williams man was OK.
Replays show Albon has actually hit the wall on both sides of the car as he lost control there so that's going to leave the Williams mechanics very busy now before FP2.
A JCB (other telehandler brands are perhaps available) is now on circuit to retrieve the Williams.
A horde of marshals are now attempting to tidy the track, although the stranded Williams remains in situ at present with just over a quarter of an hour left on the clock.
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Albon confirmed he's OK and says he's "sorry" on the radio to the team.
Ah, it's the kerbs that caused that one! He struck the kerb a lot and that pitched him sideways and into the barriers and that's a fairly sizeable hit at high speed for the Williams driver.
Albon is out of the car and now makes his obligatory way to the medical car.
There's a lot of damage on the right-hand side of the car at the front and rear, as there is a mess of debris and dust on the track in his trail.
It's at Turn 8, so not the same corner as the others have been having trouble and that's an unusual place to have an off.
Red flag
But now we have a red flag! Albon has hit the wall.
Yellow flag
But there's no such luck for Bottas! He ends up spinning at the same corner but does a complete 360 and gets going again.
Russell is the latest to get Turn 10 wrong as he ends up cutting across the grass on the inside of the corner on his first flier on softs. His rear snapped sideways mid-corner but the Briton somehow managed to avoid a monumental crash there.
Tsunoda and Perez now dump Stroll down to fourth, but they can't quite knock Norris off top spot for the time being.
By: Autosport Staff
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