McLaren driver Oscar Piastri led a Mercedes-powered top three in the second Formula 1 practice session at the Australian Grand Prix.

After a muted start in FP1, Piastri and the Mercedes duo upped the pace, with Piastri’s new benchmark, a 1m19.729s, half a second faster than Charles Leclerc’s FP1-topping time. 

In FP2 itself that was 0.214s faster than Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes and 0.320s quicker than George Russell, who had an eventful start to the session, clashing with Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls when exiting his Mercedes garage in the pitlane. 

Piastri’s 2026 FP2 benchmark was over three seconds slower than the fastest time in FP2 last year, set by Leclerc.

This year, Leclerc was fifth fastest, 0.562s off the pace, with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton fourth, only 0.001s adrift of his ex-team-mate Russell. 

Max Verstappen lost a big chunk of running early on when his Red Bull stopped at the end of the pitlane just after the Russell/Lindblad clash.

Following work from the team, he did eventually take to the track, ultimately setting the sixth fastest time, despite a lairy snap and run across the grass on the exit of the high-speed Turn 9/10 section.

World champion Lando Norris was seventh quickest, 1.065s adrift of his McLaren team-mate Piastri and just slightly quicker than rookie Lindblad, who backed up his strong FP1 showing as the fastest driver outside the top four teams in FP2.

Isack Hadjar was ninth, five and a half tenths slower than Red Bull team-mate Verstappen. 

Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 for Haas ahead of team-mate Ollie Bearman, Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls. 

Carlos Sainz completed just 10 laps before a technical issue grounded him in the Williams garage for the rest of the session. He ended up 17th with his team-mate Alex Albon 15th. 

The Cadillac of Sergio Perez also spent the majority of the session in the garage with a suspected hydraulic issue, only emerging late-on and then stopping on the exit of Turn 2, causing a virtual safety car after just two laps.

Aston Martin had a better showing, but only by the miserable standards of its FP1 where Fernando Alonso didn’t even run.

This time Alonso completed 17 laps, but was 4.933s off the pace.

Team-mate Lance Stroll managed 13 laps, but was 6.087s slower than Piastri’s session-topping time - meaning if this was qualifying, Stroll wouldn’t make the 107% cut-off.

FP2 times

1 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m19.729s
2 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.214s
3 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.320s
4 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.321s
5 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.562s
6 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.637s
7 Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.065s
8 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1.193s
9 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.212s
10 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.450s
11 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.597s
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +1.622s
13 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.629s
14 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +1.939s
15 Alex Albon (Williams) +2.118s
16 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +2.438s
17 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +2.524s
18 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +2.890s
19 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +3.931s
20 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +4.933s
21 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +6.087s
22 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) no time