Right at the beginning of the third free practice session, several pilots dared to take to the slopes. Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were the first to show up, soon joined by Ferrari stars Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, as well as Formula 1 returnees Nico Hülkenberg and his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen.
While Stroll and Alonso turned back into the pits following an installation lap, the Haas drivers and Ferrari drivers posted the first lap times. After five minutes, Sainz led the time list with 1:19.061 min ahead of Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
The World Champion had joined the group of pilots who started their work early together with some drivers. In contrast to the Scuderia colleagues, who had deployed on the soft tyres, he was on the medium tyres. With a time of 1:18.741 minutes, before the first ten minutes had elapsed, he set a new benchmark for the rest of the drivers on the track.
Lewis Hamilton appeared on the track for the first time 6 minutes following the start of the first hour of practice. Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing team-mate Sergio Pérez, on the other hand, had to be patient because his car was still being worked on.
After ten minutes the order was: Verstappen in front of Sainz, Stroll, Leclerc, Hamilton, Magnussen, Hülkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Guanyu Zhou and George Russell. The latter had a moment of shock with the strolling Stroll, which he had to avoid.
Shocking moment for Sergio Pérez
Leclerc soon took the lead with a time of 1:18.731 minutes, ahead of Verstappen and the Aston Martin duo, who were able to improve to positions 3 and 4. After almost 25 minutes, a scene between Nico Hülkenberg and Sergio Pérez, who had started with a considerable delay, caused excitement. The German apparently didn’t see the Red Bull Racing racer in the rear-view mirror and the two GP racers became close.
At this point Sainz had taken the lead with 1:18.127 min, followed by Alonso, Gasly, Leclerc, Ocon, Verstappen, Alex Albon, Stroll, Hamilton, Logan Sargeant, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Nyck De Vries, Russell, Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou, Bottas, Pérez.
Not much had changed at halftime, Sainz was still ahead of Alonso, Gasly, Leclerc and Ocon, Verstappen, Albon, Stroll, Hamilton and Sargeant completed the top 10. Tsunoda had improved to 13th and Pérez had handed the bottom spot to Bottas.
Magnussen caused a short yellow phase because he went for a ride, which, however, had no major consequences. Shortly followingwards there was a red flag because debris from De Vries’ AlphaTauri racer was lying on the track just before the ninth turn.
The action resumed following four minutes and shortly followingwards Pérez caused a stir when he hit the gravel trap in the third corner. The Mexican was also lucky in his misfortune and was then able to continue. In the following minutes, not everyone remained flawless, for example Zhou spun in turn 2 and was then able to continue.
17 minutes before the end, Hamilton improved to second position, the seven-time champion from the Mercedes team was only 11 thousandths short of Sainz’s record. A yellow flag was displayed once more ten minutes before the end, but was not displayed along the route. Hamilton expressed the assumption on the radio that there was another problem with the GPS.
By the end, Verstappen had taken the lead with a time of 1:17.565 minutes, while his teammate Pérez, who also ran off the track once more 2 minutes before the end of the practice session, ruining another set of tyres. This time he made the first turn excursion. Leclerc also made a mistake and an excursion at the same place.
Behind Verstappen were Alonso, Ocon, Russell Gasly, Pérez, Sainz Hamilton, Stroll and Zhou in the other top 10 positions. The timesheets were completed by Hülkenberg, Albon, Leclerc, Piastri, Bottas, Tsunoda, Sargeant, Magnussen, De Vries and Norris.
After the session, local hero Piastri had to compete with the rule enforcement officers because he had not followed the instructions given by the race directors during the practice starts following the session. Sainz struggled with completely different problems. In the beginning of the race he came off the track on the way back to the pits and crashed through the gravel, but was able to avoid an impact.
3rd practice, Australia
01. Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing, 1:17,565 min
02. Fernando Alonso (E), Aston Martin, 1:17.727
03. Esteban Ocon (F), Alpine, 1:17,938
04. George Russell (GB), Mercedes, 1:17,955
05. Pierre Gasly (F), Alpine, 1:18,094
06. Sergio Perez (MEX), Red Bull Racing, 1:18.123
07. Carlos Sainz (E), Ferrari, 1:18.127
08. Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes, 1:18,138
09. Lance Stroll (CDN), Aston Martin, 1:18,198
10. Guanyu Zhou (RCH), Alfa Romeo, 1:18,330
11. Nico Hülkenberg (D), Haas, 1:18,410
12. Alex Albon (T), Williams, 1:18,553
13. Charles Leclerc (MC), Ferrari, 1:18,691
14. Oscar Piastri (AUS), McLaren, 1:18.713
15. Valtteri Bottas (FIN), Alfa Romeo, 1:18,809
16. Yuki Tsunoda (J), AlphaTauri, 1:18,901
17. Logan Sargeant (USA), Williams, 1:18,947
18. Kevin Magnussen (DK), Haas, 1:19.056
19. Nyck de Vries (NL), AlphaTauri, 1:19,092
20. Lando Norris (GB), McLaren, 1:19.146
