Oscar Piastri tops second practice at Australian Grand Prix

McLarens Oscar Piastri powered to the fastest time ahead of Mercedes Kimi Antonelli in second practice for the seasonopening Australian Grand Prix on Friday as drivers grappled with sweeping new engine changes The Australian sent 125000 fans at his home track into a frenzy by blasting round Albert Park in one minute 19729secs 0214 clear of AntonelliAntonellis teammate preseason favourite George Russell came third a fraction clear of Ferraris seventime world champion Lewis Hamilton A lot of learnings but overall a reasonably good day said Piastri who won seven times last year but could only finish the championship in thirdFP2 ran smoothly and we were able to find a bit more consistency and the car behaved more as we expected which was good After a dismal debut season with Ferrari last year an upbeat Hamilton was encouraged by what had been achieved so far by the Scuderia It was challenging at times on track but we maximised our laps and executed to the best of our ability getting some good information he said Lots of work to do but Im looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrowCharles Leclerc in the other Ferrari was fifth with fourtime world champion Max Verstappen sixth after spending half the session in the garage having stalled his Red Bull McLaren world champion Lando Norris clawed his way to seventh more than one second off the pace after managing only seven laps in first practice due to gearbox issuesWeve got some good bits of data to go over from the second half of FP2 and theres plenty we can learn from what our competitors have been doing said Norris while admitting to a tricky first day Racing Bulls impressive rookie Arvid Lindblad banked an eyeopening eighth a place ahead of Isack Hadjar the man he replaced and who is now Verstappens teammateF1 begins new eraIt was the first proper test of farreaching new engine and chassis rules with the hybrid power units now 50 percent traditional combustion and 50 percent electric With a finite amount of energy available drivers had to carefully manage their batteries on each lap working out when to deploy while building it up back through braking The challenge of Albert Park is its long sweeping straights which deplete batteries and relatively few twisty turns to brake and charge it up again There have also been changes to the aerodynamics of the cars which are lighter and smallerOn a perfect Melbourne afternoon Nico Hulkenberg led them out but it was Hamilton who set the opening time Verstappen had an inauspicious start stalling in the pit lane while Russell clipped Lindblad on his way out and needed a new nose Verstappens car was wheeled back into the garage apparently stuck in gear where he stayed for almost half an hour The drivers started on a mix of medium and hard tyres and Russell soon upstaged Hamilton as they jockeyed for placesAt the halfway mark it was Italys Antonelli Russell Hamilton and Piastri Russell locked up and hit the gravel at Turn 3 as he pushed hard as did Hamilton but they both kept enough momentum to get back on track Piastri blasted to the top of the timesheets on soft tyres with 25 minutes left as Verstappen began climbing the leaderboard But the Dutchman was trying too hard and careered into the gravel at Turn 10 with debris flying off his car ending his day early Fernando Alonso clocked 18 laps and Lance Stroll 13 as the troubled Aston Martins battle extreme vibration caused by the new Honda power unit Newcomers Cadillac the 11th team on the grid also struggled with Valtteri Bottas 19th and Sergio Perez last In first practice Leclerc outpaced Hamilton with Verstappen and Hadjar third and fourthThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever