Piastri quickest from Russell in FP3 as Bearman crashes again

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri topped a convoluted final practice for Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix ahead of George Russell and Max Verstappen, where Oliver Bearman crashed out again for Haas.

Under overcast skies at Albert Park, several frontrunners had headed out on the hard tyres before Bearman’s immediate incident, but when the one-hour session resumed with just 11 minutes gone they waited a little longer and then returned on the softs.

Esteban Ocon and Jack Doohan had short initial spells at the top of the times, before Verstappen shot ahead with a 1m17.632s as the Red Bull looked much improved early compared to Friday’s running.

Piastri then nipped to the top on a 1m17.298s before Verstappen edged much further clear with a 1m16.646s on his second run after 24 minutes.

This stood as the benchmark for over 10 minutes – as his rivals could not go quicker on their subsequent early efforts. But on Verstappen’s third run he suffered a rear slide at Turn 12, which suggested the RB21’s knife-edge handling remains a factor.

With just over 20 minutes to go, Russell toppled Verstappen with a 1m16.402s before Lando Norris came through to sit second with a lap that featured a big gravel strike exiting Turn 6.

Verstappen then used another new set of softs to shoot back to the top of the times with a 1m16.002s.

While Verstappen returned to the pits, Piastri used the same set of softs to get ahead on a 1m15.921s with just eight minutes remaining – after Norris had backed out of a lap due to a slide in dirty air from traffic at the penultimate corner.

As the clock ticked down, Verstappen abandoned a lap that looked to be going close with Piastri as he slid wildly exiting Turn 12 – albeit while running used softs at this stage, where Russell then squeezed between Piastri and the world champion.

He ended up 0.039s off the top spot, with the top three covered by just 0.081s.

FP2 leader Charles Leclerc finally got Ferrari up the order late on after going close midway through – as he complained about oversteer that was robbing him of confidence – and he failed to go any quicker with a second attempt on his final set of softs as the chequered flag flew.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was fifth ahead of Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda, while Norris ended up rounding out the top 10 in the other McLaren.

Bearman spun off on his first flying lap after missing all of FP2 as a result of his FP1 shunt at Turn 10, with his FP3 off occurring one corner on. The Briton put his left-side wheels on the grass and speared off backwards – getting beached in the gravel and unable to take any further part in the session.

Liam Lawson also missed most of FP3 as a pneumatic air issue on his engine struck on his first flying lap and he had to return to the pits from where he did not re-emerge.

F1 Australian GP – FP3 results