Lando Norris Tops FP3 as McLaren Seek Surprising Pole at Australian GP

It’s the second day of F1 at the Australian Grand Prix. After two sessions yesterday, the drivers took to the track to take part in the final practice session of the weekend with Lando Norris coming up on top. The Qualifying session to follow soon in rather cloudy weather at Albert Park.

Much like the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Ferraris and the Red Bulls looked stronger than the rest of the field. Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, and Sergio Perez formed the front three yesterday in FP1 while Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz topped the timing chart for FP2.

As the stage is all set for the third practice session, Guanyu Zhou took charge to start it right away. It’s the final chance for the drivers before the real pressure mounts in. Sebastian Vettel is back to test his car after yesterday’s unfortunate incident.

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The German once again had a disastrous start to the session. After a couple of laps, he smashed his car into the barrier after failing to keep control of his AMR-22. This has been the second back-to-back bad day in the office for the four-time world champion after yesterday’s power-unit issue.

The hit has wrapped up the session for Seb as well as brought the first red flag of the session. “Sorry I lost the car. Sorry guys” was all the German had to say on the radio. Sebastian’s Aston Martin looks bad. It’ll be interesting to see if the mechanics can get the car ready for the qualifying session in the latter half of the day.

Lance Stroll’s barrier meant Lando Norris leading the session

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso has been on fiery form in FP3. The ‘El Plan’ man has had a flying lap at 1:20:119 in mid session. As the commentators picked up Guenther Steiner from Haas, he conveyed that Kevin Magnussen has been suffering from stomach issues. With Australian Grand Prix being a happy hunting ground for the American team, it’ll be interesting to see what they can do.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen lost the rear grip of his car to suffer a spin in the 34th minute. The Dutchman, however, managed to save his car from going into the barrier. Max on the radio asserted that there could be some damage to the Red Bull. The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have finished the session in P8 and P11.

Surprisingly, the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was seen suffering from the porpoising effect down the straight in turn 3. Carlos almost lost control of the car after Williams’ Nicholas Latifi came across the lane the Spaniard was in. He conveyed on the radio, “Man I almost crashed because of Latifi”

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Interestingly, the two AlphaTauri drivers tried the practice with two different floor configurations for their AT03. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo looked impressive today as they found some pace. Lando’s race engineer asked him on the radio to bail out and not to go out on the full throttle.

As the other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll hit the barrier, Norris continued to be the leader of the session. Soon the FP3 came to an end with Lando Norris leading the session followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.