It’s not raining, but it’s cold and the tires are struggling to get up to temperature. Many drivers choose to do two flying laps to limit the presence of graining which generates a lot of understeer. Max Verstappen, first dedicated himself to a long run with medium tires (12 laps), and then in the final part of the third and final free practice session of the Australian GP he switched to soft tires and set the best time in 1’17” 565 which is the new track record in the 5.28 meter configuration introduced in 2022, doing better than three tenths.Then a shower of water anticipated the end of the session by a few minutes.
Red Bull continues its domination, but not everything went smoothly for the Milton Keynes team: Sergio Perez is only sixth with a gap of more than half a second from the world champion. In the flying lap the Mexican seemed to be in trouble by accumulating a series of errors with long runs and repeated blockages that did not allow him to express a time worthy of the RB19.
And then, behind Verstappen comes an extraordinary Fernando Alonso with the Aston Martin: the Spaniard is 162 thousandths behind Red Bull, but in addition to being competitive in the qualifying simulation, he is the fastest and most constant even in the long run. The “green” can be a surprise in Australia, while Lance Stroll is only ninth with the other AMR23.
Positive performance by Esteban Ocon who takes the Alpine to third position: the A523 begins to show its true potential, given that Pierre Gasly has also climbed to fifth place. The two transalpines are separated by a couple of tenths and a George Russell slipped in between, not at all satisfied with the Mercedes. The Englishman climbed up the timesheets at the end of the session as track grip increased, while Lewis Hamilton, eighth, had sought his performance earlier. The black arrow is in trouble and the Brackley team faces defense over the weekend waiting for the advanced car that will arrive at Imola.
The first Ferrari is only in seventh place, but be careful not to be misled by the times table: Carlos Sainz is half a second away on the softs, but the Spaniard only made one attempt at the beginning of the work (when he was leading) while he gave up on the final run preferring, instead, to run with mediums thinking about the race. The SF-23 seems to work in Melbourne: it will be competitive in the flying lap to contend for pole and it seems to have definitely improved also in the race pace, affording a lower ground clearance which means more downforce.
Charles Leclerc is only 14th, but for the Monegasque who didn’t finish a clean flying lap, the same goes for his teammate: the idea is that the Scuderia seems to have found the thread to make the red work.
The top 10 is closed by Guanyu Zhou with Alfa Romeo: the Chinese is the author of a spin in the wet (same mistake also for Sainz and Perez) after showing the leap in quality of the C43 with the new long nose. Valtteri Bottas is less brilliant with the new configuration and the Finn is satisfied with a 15th place.
Nico Hulkenberg is 11th with the Haas, while a messy Kevin Magnussen is only 18th: the Dane seemed nervous and foul. Positive performance by Alexander Albon with a concrete Williams: the Anglo-Thailandese is 12th, with deb Logan Sargeant 17th. Better than expected for the team from Grove who left the last position to Lando Norris with the McLaren, while Oscar Piastri with the other MCL60 defended himself in front of his home crowd with an honorable 14th place.
The AlphaTauri is in trouble, bringing many innovations to the AT04, but Yuki Tsunoda, 16th, and Nyck De Vries, 19th, are in serious trouble: the car is wrong and it shows…
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