Fraser MasefieldOscar Piastri finished atop the much-anticipated Friday free practice times ahead of the season opening Australian Grand Prix, as Ferrari and Mercedes also impressed as expected.
Piastri’s afternoon mark of 1m19.729s was .214s quicker than Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes with George Russell and the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc rounding out the top five.
“That’s the first day done. A lot of learnings but overall, a reasonably good day,” said Piastri on the official McLaren press release. “FP1 was tricky and we had a few power unit calibration issues at the beginning, but we resolved them during the session.
“FP2 ran smoothly and we were able to find a bit more consistency and the car behaved more as we expected, which was good. We’ll review what we’ve learned today so that we can find more tomorrow ahead of the first Quali of the year.”
Next came the Red Bull of Max Verstappen from newly crowned champion Lando Norris and impressive debutant Arvid Lindblad.
“A tricky first day, but it’s good to be back in the car for the start of a new season,” said champ Norris.
“We didn’t get as much running done as we wanted to this morning, due to some reliability issues, so we’re a little bit behind in terms of running and learnings.
“With these new regulations, time in the car is very important, so we’ve got a bit of work to do this evening to recover.
Same same but different 👀#McLarenF1 | #AusGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/RHc8wr2Y5o
— McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team (@McLarenF1) March 6, 2026
“We’ve got some good bits of data to go over from the second half of FP2, and there’s plenty we can learn from what our competitors have been doing.
“We’ll work hard tonight and try to close that gap before we get back in the car for FP3 tomorrow.”
An Aussie on top Down Under 🙃
Ride onboard with @OscarPiastri as he set Friday’s fastest lap around Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit 🇦🇺#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/WRpJ3nkEIe
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 6, 2026
It was good news for Ferrari fans, Leclerc and Hamilton topping the times for the morning session, although on the suspected longer runs they were slightly adrift of their main rivals.
But the pace certainly looks good for qualifying and anything can happen on race day.
SHOP THE LEWIS HAMILTON COLLECTION – FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER £35 WITH CODE FREESHIP
“It’s been a really good day,” commented Hamilton on the official Ferrari website “It’s great to be back on track and properly get going. It’s amazing to be here. I feel incredibly grateful to be able to do what I love and it’s incredible to see so many fans here today.
“It was challenging at times on track, but we maximised our laps and executed to the best of our ability, getting some good information. Lots of work to do but I’m looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow.”
It was a predictably difficult day for the struggling Aston Martin F1 team, however, who’s well documented woes manifested into dismal reality.
READ CRAIG SCARBOROUGH’S EXCLUSIVE RUN DOWN ON THE AMR26
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll managed just 34 laps between them with team principal Adrian Newey confessing they had just two operational batteries available for the weekend.
Adrian Newey reveals that Aston Martin have just “two operational batteries” at the Australian Grand Prix 👀🔋 pic.twitter.com/P4bcT6vLmV
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 6, 2026
Craig Scarborough