Ferrari headed the final practice session for the Australian Grand Prix by a huge margin after sending its drivers out on slicks for a late flying run on a damp track.
The pair were joined at the top of the times sheets by Marcus Ericsson, the only other driver to set a time on ultra-softs as track conditions improved.
The trio were almost three seconds clear of the rest of the field who did their best times on intermediate tyres. A clear lap for Vettel meant he was almost two-and-a-half seconds quicker than his team mate.
Valtteri Bottas and the Toro Rosso pair also joined the track on slicks late in the session but ran out of time to set a lap. Fernando Alonso expressed his frustration on the radio at McLaren after running out of time to do a time on slick tyres.
The second began on a very wet track but with no further rain falling the surface improved rapidly. Max Verstappen comfortably led the field by over a second in the early running on intermediate tyres.
Lance Stroll made a late start to the session as Williams worked to repair a gearbox problem on his car. The Force India drivers only did installation laps at the start of the session, then spent the rest of the hour in the pits.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’26.067 | 15 | |
2 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’28.499 | 2.432 | 13 |
3 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’28.890 | 2.823 | 14 |
4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’31.680 | 5.613 | 8 |
5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’33.172 | 7.105 | 11 |
6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’34.043 | 7.976 | 14 |
7 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’34.174 | 8.107 | 14 |
8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’34.225 | 8.158 | 7 |
9 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’34.233 | 8.166 | 15 |
10 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’34.298 | 8.231 | 13 |
11 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’34.990 | 8.923 | 16 |
12 | 28 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’35.438 | 9.371 | 16 |
13 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.589 | 9.522 | 16 |
14 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’35.828 | 9.761 | 8 |
15 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’36.171 | 10.104 | 6 |
16 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.448 | 10.381 | 12 |
17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’36.807 | 10.740 | 7 |
18 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’38.482 | 12.415 | 8 |
Combined lap times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’24.026 | 1’23.931 | 1’34.225 | +10.294 | 69 |
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’24.771 | 1’24.058 | 1’31.680 | +7.622 | 68 |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’24.577 | 1’24.159 | 1’34.174 | +10.015 | 77 |
4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’24.875 | 1’24.214 | 1’28.499 | +4.285 | 75 |
5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’24.995 | 1’24.451 | 1’26.067 | +1.616 | 75 |
6 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’25.730 | 1’24.648 | 1’36.171 | +11.523 | 64 |
7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’25.063 | 1’24.721 | 1’34.043 | +9.322 | 67 |
8 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’25.896 | 1’25.200 | 1’34.298 | +9.098 | 57 |
9 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’27.035 | 1’25.246 | 1’36.807 | +11.561 | 50 |
10 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’26.482 | 1’25.285 | 1’34.233 | +8.948 | 63 |
11 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’25.922 | 1’25.390 | 1’33.172 | +7.782 | 69 |
12 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’26.767 | 1’25.413 | 57 | ||
13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’26.583 | 1’25.463 | 1’38.482 | +13.019 | 68 |
14 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’26.636 | 1’25.543 | 1’35.828 | +10.285 | 70 |
15 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’26.605 | 1’25.888 | 64 | ||
16 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’27.745 | 1’25.925 | 1’35.438 | +9.513 | 73 |
17 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’26.494 | 1’25.945 | 1’34.990 | +9.045 | 80 |
18 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’26.536 | 1’25.974 | 1’35.589 | +9.615 | 78 |
19 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’27.964 | 1’26.814 | 1’28.890 | +2.076 | 73 |
20 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’28.853 | 1’26.815 | 1’36.448 | +9.633 | 75 |
Third practice visual gaps
Sebastian Vettel – 1’26.067
+2.432 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’28.499
+2.823 Marcus Ericsson – 1’28.890
+5.613 Max Verstappen – 1’31.680
+7.105 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’33.172
+7.976 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’34.043
+8.107 Valtteri Bottas – 1’34.174
+8.158 Lewis Hamilton – 1’34.225
+8.166 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’34.233
+8.231 Fernando Alonso – 1’34.298
+8.923 Pierre Gasly – 1’34.990
+9.371 Brendon Hartley – 1’35.438
+9.522 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’35.589
+9.761 Lance Stroll – 1’35.828
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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2018 Australian Grand Prix
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ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
24th March 2018, 4:20
So it will be dry qualy?
Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
24th March 2018, 4:50
Looks like it. The sun is out here and warming up. Looks pretty clear on the horizon.
There has just been the Porche Carrera Cup race all on slicks so they would have dried up the racing line.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
24th March 2018, 5:10
@theoddkiwi There’s a race before qualy? Sure it’ll dry it up. Nice info…
Q2 would be mega. I hope Toro Rosso kids could make the most of their first race without engine penalty. I’d like to see how they start and fight in the tight middle competition.
Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
24th March 2018, 5:18
Yep at the Melbourne GP they have support races from the Australian Super Car, Porche Carrera Cup, Australian GT cup and the Asia Pacific Ferrari Challenge Trofeo which has a feild of 30 cars.
So there us lots of racing all day all weekend.
Archit (@architjain07)
24th March 2018, 4:38
All things being equal… Verstappen had got the measure of Ricciardo! McLaren looking reasonable to fight for best of the rest! #bebrave
David BR (@david-br)
24th March 2018, 4:39
Well minimally you can say Ferrari look alert and ready to fight. Same goes for Alonso.
Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
24th March 2018, 4:54
Not much word on Hamilton and what issues he had in the garage. The took ages to get him out. The first time, then didnt get him out for a run at the end but looked like they were trying.
LyndaMarks
24th March 2018, 4:57
My gosh this font is awful, It is making aspects of the graphics unreadable.
And the graphics package in general seems to be lacking a lot of data & detail we had in the past, Seem rather dumbed down.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
24th March 2018, 5:16
Liberty should learn from NetFlix before wasting millions more of ‘brand value’.
Damon
24th March 2018, 5:23
Seems like Netflix’s communication of their brand doesn’t really work when people call them “NetFlix”.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
24th March 2018, 5:35
I just blame asian language autocorrect.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
24th March 2018, 5:34
Classic case of form trumping function.
I keep reading the lowercase ‘a’ as z, due to the way it is stylized.
Thankfully most of the race graphics are in uppercase, which is marginally better.
Although I really wish that they keep this font only for trackside branding and print, but for information-dense screens (timing screens, timing tower) they use a compact sans-serif font like Helvetica, or a font inspired by it.