George Russell set an imposing fastest lap in final practice at the Australian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver was 0.616 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.
The final practice, also known as FP3, saw drama unfold as team-mate Kimi Antonelli had a huge accident.
Antonelli’s Crash Halts Session
Antonelli crashed on the exit of Turn Two with 15 minutes of the session remaining. He applied the power just as he went over a bump on the kerb, and that unsettled the rear of his Mercedes.
The Italian spun on the exit of the corner and bounced from the outside barrier into the inside wall, causing heavy damage to his car. Antonelli was unhurt.
The incident left his rivals just five minutes for one final qualifying simulation run at the end of the session.
Russell Leads, Verstappen Complains
Russell was significantly quicker than the rest of the field, with Charles Leclerc just over 0.1secs slower in third place. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in fourth place was a second slower than Russell.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was sixth fastest. He complained of an energy deployment problem, and finished just behind new team-mate Isack Hadjar.
Lando Norris was eighth, slowest of the drivers from the top four teams.
Aston Martin’s Struggles Continue
There was some improvement from Aston Martin. Fernando Alonso narrowed his gap to the front from five seconds on Friday to 3.6secs on Saturday, although he was down in 18th place.
Team-mate Lance Stroll did not run all session because of an engine problem.
Other Incidents
Carlos Sainz’s Williams stopped at the entry of the pit lane earlier on in the session.
- George Russell (Mercedes) 1:19.053
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.616
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.774
Qualifying is going to be absolutely fascinating.
We’re rapidly approaching qualifying and there’s a huge amount of work for this Mercedes team to do.