Melbourne’s hometown hero Oscar Piastri topped the FP2 timesheet at the Albert Park Circuit, beating Mercedes pair Kimi Antonelli and George Russell by more than two tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Aston Martin recovered from a disastrous morning session to complete 28 laps in the afternoon, but the team’s woes continued as it managed power unit issues.
The session began with a series of minor incidents as first Russell clipped the car of Arvid Lindblad in the pit lane leaving the Mercedes driver requiring a change of nose cone.
On track, Franco Colapinto’s Alpine A526 then appeared to select neutral, leaving him dangerously slow on the racing line. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was forced to take evasive action to avoid colliding with the Argentine driver.
Then, six minutes into the session, Max Verstappen ground to a halt at the end of the pit lane. His RB22 had to be rolled back to the garage where he sat out the first half of the session while the issue was resolved.
It was Hamilton who set the early pace with the seven-time champion taking top spot after nine minutes with a lap of 1:20.903 set on Hard tyres. The C3 compound appeared to work well in the conditions with the top five of Hamilton, Russell, Piastri, Antonelli and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc all setting good times on the white-banded tyre.
Antonelli moved to top with a lap of 1:20.801 but he was then eclipsed by Piatsri who took top spot in the session for the first time with a lap of 1:20.638 that features a purple first sector.
As the first third of the session came to a close, the Mercedes pair moved to Soft tyres and Russell vaulted to P1 with a lap of 1:20.049. Antonelli slotted into second place, 0.178s off his team-mate and almost four tenths clear of Hamilton.
As the halfway mark arrived Antonelli climbed to top spot with a lap of 1:19.943. Verstappen was now out on track on Mediums and he steadily made progress before eventually making a brief switch to Softs with which he took P6.
With 23 minutes to go Piastri went for his first run on Softs and he took P1 with a lap of 1:19.729. The Australian’s team-mate, who was playing catch-up after missing much of FP1 took P7 behind Verstappen and a second off his team-mate.
With Piastri at the top ahead of the Mercedes pair and with Hamilton in fourth ahead of team-mate Leclerc, the field then began to switch to longer runs.
However, Verstappen’s laps on Medium tyres ended with big off at Turn 10. It looked as though Dutchman suffered a sudden snap of oversteer midway through the corner and he clattered through the gravel trap, causing damage to the front of his car’s floor and to the left-side barge board. He returned to the garage and took no further part.
There was a late VSC too for Sergio Pérez. The Cadillac driver had spent almost the whole session in the garage as his team worked on a sensor issue. The Mexican driver at last made it out on track in the final five minutes but after two laps, one of which was compromised by a slower Piastri, Peerez was told to stop the car, and he parked up at Turn 12.
At Aston Martin, Alonso and Stroll did turn some laps, bouncing back from a morning session in which Lance Stroll completed just three laps. However, neither he nor Fernando Alonso was able to run for more than a handful of laps in each run and Alonso, the quicker of the two, ended up in 20th place, almost five seconds off the pace.
2026 FIA Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:19.729 26 238.317
2 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:19.943 0.214 31 237.679
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:20.049 0.320 28 237.364
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:20.050 0.321 32 237.361
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:20.291 0.562 30 236.649
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Red Bull Ford 1:20.366 0.637 13 236.428
7 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:20.794 1.065 29 235.175
8 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford 1:20.922 1.193 30 234.803
9 Isack Hadjar Red Bull/Red Bull Ford 1:20.941 1.212 28 234.748
10 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:21.179 1.450 29 234.060
11 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:21.326 1.597 31 233.637
12 Nico Hülkenberg Audi 1:21.351 1.622 34 233.565
13 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford 1:21.358 1.629 29 233.545
14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:21.668 1.939 28 232.659
15 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:21.847 2.118 32 232.150
16 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Mercedes 1:22.167 2.438 16 231.246
17 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:22.253 2.524 10 231.004
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Mercedes 1:22.619 2.890 27 229.980
19 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac/Ferrari 1:23.660 3.931 28 227.119
20 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Honda 1:24.662 4.933 18 224.431
21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Honda 1:25.816 6.087 13 221.413
22 Sergio Pérez Cadillac/Ferrari - 2
2026 FIA Formula 1 Australian Gran Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:20.267 33 236.719
2 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:20.736 0.469 30 235.344
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Red Bull Ford 1:20.789 0.522 27 235.190
4 Isack Hadjar Red Bull/Red Bull Ford 1:21.087 0.820 24 234.326
5 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford 1:21.313 1.046 22 233.674
6 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:21.342 1.075 21 233.591
7 George Russell Mercedes 1:21.371 1.104 26 233.508
8 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:21.376 1.109 24 233.493
9 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:21.696 1.429 23 232.579
10 Nico Hülkenberg Audi 1:21.969 1.702 21 231.804
11 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:22.161 1.894 28 231.263
12 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:22.323 2.056 30 230.807
13 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford 1:22.613 2.346 28 229.997
14 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:22.682 2.415 25 229.805
15 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:23.130 2.863 24 228.567
16 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Mercedes 1:23.325 3.058 26 228.032
17 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac/Ferrari 1:24.022 3.755 24 226.140
18 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Mercedes 1:24.035 3.768 27 226.105
19 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:24.391 4.124 7 225.151
20 Sergio Pérez Cadillac/Ferrari 1:24.620 4.353 14 224.542
21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Honda 1:50.334 30.067 3 172.211
