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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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The Mercs are languishing down in 14th and 15th currently, but it's worth noting they are some of the small number of drivers yet to use the softer rubber.
Stroll now goes up to second to rub further salt in Alonso's wounds - he goes purple in the middle sector on that latest lap.
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Update from Aston on Alonso's disrupted session: "We are changing Fernando’s floor as a result of that off at Turn 10. Should hopefully take about 15 minutes."
Things are better in the other half of the Aston garage as Stroll has just moved up to third. Verstappen meanwhile clunks the kerb at Turn 7, not something you would want to do too often.
Gasly has now moved off the bottom of the leaderboard as that 'honour' now goes to Alonso, who is back in the pits after his notable off-track moment a few minutes ago.
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"Just check the floor because I bottomed out pretty badly," says Norris. Clearly it's not affected his McLaren as he knocks Verstappen off top spot with a 1m18.564s on his soft tyres!
Normality has been restored at the top and bottom of the timesheets as Gasly is currently slowest for Alpine - although his team-mate Ocon is in the dizzy heights of ninth!
Yellow flag
Meanwhile, Alonso is clearly pushing and runs very wide into the gravel at the high-speed Turn 9/10 complex. He wasn't far from the wall there, but gets away with it...
Sure enough, Russell moves up to 11th with his latest effort.
Tsunoda's impressive showing continues as he now goes second on the mediums - just four tenths behind Verstappen on softs!
Russell reports that the brakes are feeling "much better" now as he seeks to move up from last place on the leaderboard.
Stroll and Ricciardo move up to fourth and fifth behind the pacesetting Red Bulls and Ferrari.
Sainz's Ferrari is now pushed back into the garage after his first laps on his F1 return as replays show he got to within 9cm of the wall approaching Turn 9 a few minutes ago. Come on Carlos, you can get closer to it than that!
Albon's first lap puts him 19th, meaning he's gone quicker than the man he replaced at Williams: Russell. Alonso's first proper effort puts him 17th, meanwhile.
Although Sainz now splits the two RBs and goes sixth on his comeback.
Ricciardo goes up to sixth with his latest attempt, two tenths and one place behind team-mate Tsunoda, who continues to have the upper hand so far.
We clearly encouraged Albon to venture out as he's just left the pits!
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And bang, there we go! Verstappen goes to the top, four tenths quicker than anyone else has managed. Normality is restored.
We're still yet to see Albon on track at all, clearly not all is well down at Williams.
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Leclerc and Perez continue to trade first place and it's back in the hands of the Ferrari driver with a 1m19.110s on his softs.
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Perez retakes top spot with his next effort on the softs to pip Leclerc by a tenth. We're still yet to see a true time from his team-mate.
Hulkenberg, meanwhile, is suggesting Haas needs to raise the ride height on his car as he's reporting the floor "smoking" on the ground.
Still four drivers yet to set times: Alonso (who is having his large aero rakes being adjusted now), Bottas, Sargeant and Albon.
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His team-mate Leclerc, meanwhile, is next to go up to first place with a 1m19.337s to fractionally pip Piastri.
Lots of attention on Sainz and he's now up to seventh on the leaderboard as he reacclimatises himself with the SF-24.
For reference, last year's pole time was a 1m16.732s, so we're some way off that just yet.
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Next up it's Tsunoda's turn to head the leaderboard, before then being usurped by Perez - who is the first driver to dip into the 1m19s with a 1m19.977s.
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Norris now jumps to the top of the leaderboard as he pips Stroll's effort by a tenth on the mediums.
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Hamilton reports "a long brake pedal" on the radio, so clearly the driver currently third in the times is not feeling quite comfortable in the car.
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Stroll now jumps up to first, somehow we don't think he'll stay there all weekend.
Perez goes fourth with his first time, although these initial efforts are not the most enlightening.
Leclerc's opening gambit puts him second - and, unlike the rest, he's on the soft Pirelli rubber.
Stopwatch
That's immediately usurped by other drivers including Piastri and Hamilton, who lowers the benchmark to 1m20.886s - all drivers using the medium tyres.
Russell has the honour of being the first driver to post a time and it's an unrepresentative 1m30.214s from the Mercedes driver.
Some of the big guns have headed out now with Leclerc and Perez joining the fray along with home hero Ricciardo.
Both McLarens, Saubers, Mercs and Alpines are among those also immediately heading out to experience the Albert Park track.
Green flag
We've got a small queue at the end of the pitlane as the light goes green and Alonso leads the field out with a plethora of aerodynamic measuring devices attached to his Aston.
Sun
But, let's turn our attention back to the on-track shenanigans now as it's only five minutes until FP1 begins. Dry weather is expected for this opening session with a 0% risk of rain.
Breaking news
Lewis Hamilton described himself as being "incredibly proud" about the way Wolff had taken on the authorities: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/hamilton-praises-wolffs-action-against-fia/10589342/
Breaking news
Of course, this being F1 2024, there are some major off-track stories developing over the course of the event. In case you missed it, earlier in the week, Susie Wolff revealed she's lodged a criminal complaint against the FIA for the way it handled allegations against her last year: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/susie-wolff-files-criminal-complaint-against-fia/10589282/
By: Autosport Staff
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