F1
Charles Leclerc fastest for Ferrari in second practice ahead of McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris; Lewis Hamilton fifth on Ferrari debut;watch final practice at 1.30am on Saturday, before Qualifying for the Australian GP at 5am live on Sky Sports F1
Friday 14 March 2025 08:22, UK
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Charles Leclerc topped second practice at the Australian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton was unable to match his team-mate’s pace on his Ferrari debut.
With all eyes on Hamilton on Friday in Melbourne as the seven-time world champion participated in his first race weekend sessions for Ferrari following his blockbuster move from Mercedes, the 40-year-old Brit was fifth in Practice Two having earlier finished 12th in the opening session.
Hamilton was four-tenths of a second off Leclerc’s impressive leading time of 1:16.439, which was good enough to outpace McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, who topped first practice, by more than a tenth.
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Hamilton said: “It’s (been) a super exciting build-up to this week and it felt amazing to get out there and be in a Ferrari here.
“Honestly, the car felt so much different to what I’ve ever experienced coming to this track, so it took a little bit of bedding in through P1. P2 was definitely a little better but just building. We’re slowly building and getting a little bit faster bit by bit.”
The consensus in the paddock ahead of the opening round of the season has been that reigning constructors’ champions McLaren would begin the campaign with the fastest car on the grid, but Leclerc’s showing suggests Ferrari can at least challenge for pole at Albert Park on Saturday.
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Along with being a match for McLaren over one lap, Ferrari also appeared competitive during the longer running done in the latter stages of the session.
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Times set in practice are of course not fully representative given teams can be running their cars with different settings and fuel loads to what they would in qualifying, which could explain some surprise placings on the timesheet.
Yuki Tsunoda was fourth ahead of Lewis Hamilton for Racing Bulls, with his rookie team-mate Isack Hadjar completing a strong showing by taking sixth.
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They finished ahead of both drivers from senior team Red Bull, with Max Verstappen seventh as he begins his quest to win a fifth successive drivers’ title, and new team-mate Liam Lawson only 17th.
Verstappen was one of several drivers to struggle with the handling of his car as teams attempted to find well-balanced setups with their 2025 challengers after just three days of testing in Bahrain last month.
George Russell similarly struggled, going off track in his Mercedes as he had done earlier in first practice, on his way to finishing 10th. His new Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli was 16th.
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Mercedes showed decent pace on the medium and hard tyre compounds, but were concerningly unable to find the expected significant improvement when switching to the quicker soft compound.
British rookie Oliver Bearman narrowly missed out on the opportunity to participate in the session as Haas ran out of time to complete repairs to his car following a big crash in first practice.
Saturday March 15
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Sunday March 16
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