MELBOURNE: Charles Leclerc left new Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton trailing in his wake in free practice at the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix on Friday as defending champion Max Verstappen struggled with the Red Bull car.

Third quickest in the first practice session (FP1), Leclerc topped the timesheet in the second (FP2) at Albert Park with a lap of one minute, 16.439 seconds on soft tyres, 0.124 better than McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Piastri’s team-mate Lando Norris ran third in FP2 ahead of surprise-package Yuki Tsunoda in an RB while seven-times world champion Hamilton was fifth, an improvement on his 12th ranking in the first session (FP1), but more than four-tenths of a second slower than Leclerc.

The soft tyre times could have little relevance for Sunday’s race if the forecast for rain proves accurate.

“It’s too early to come to any conclusions,” said Leclerc. “We will only get a first idea of the respective pace of all the teams in qualifying. All in all it was a good day and we look forward to tomorrow, when we want to target pole position.”

Hamilton is gradually adjusting to life in a new car after his shock move to Ferrari from Mercedes after 12 years.

The Briton cautioned this week that everything at Scuderia was different and there could be a transition period while he settles in.

“We were not completely satisfied with FP1 but we made some good progress in FP2 and got some solid longer runs in, which was important,” said Hamilton.

Rookie Isack Hadjar came sixth in the second RB ahead of world champion Verstappen, who struggled with his Red Bull car’s setup. He was fifth in FP1 and unable to post a fast lap on soft tyres in FP2, finishing on the medium set.

“Somehow the grip was not coming alive and just struggling on all four tyres, really, in sector one and the last sector,” Verstappen told Sky. “The problem is that its not really like I have major balance problems, so I think it will be a bit hard to fix.”

His new team-mate Liam Lawson also struggled for control, 17th in the second session, one lower than FP1.

Mercedes, too, have ground to make up, with George Russell seventh and 10th respectively in the sessions and 18-year-old teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli 14th and 16th.

Russell reported trouble with his car in FP1, complaining of understeer at high speed and excessive heat.

He spun off track with a minute left in the session, narrowly avoiding a front-on collision with a wall after setting the seventh-quickest lap.

The teams switched to harder compounds and higher fuel loads for the last 20 minutes of FP2.

Norris, the bookmakers’ early favourite to win the drivers’ title, set the pace in the long-run setup, marginally ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, with Hamilton lagging the trio.

Norris said he was not confident with his car in low fuel.

“High fuel, I felt good. Just low fuel was still similar to Bahrain [testing], too many inconsistencies, too many problems, so a bit of a struggle,” he said.

Piastri was happier with the day’s work, saying his pace was “pretty solid”. “Still a few things to iron out to make the car feel a bit nicer,” he said.

Qualifying will take place in scorching heat on Saturday before rain could make Sunday’s race a lottery.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2025