Leclerc takes the lead in Australian second practice! Verstappen Sainz follows!

At the end of the first day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix, Charles Leclercq came out on top with his best performance in the second free practice session, ahead of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

At 16:00 local time, the sun was shining brightly and things were busy when practice started, although two riders remained in the garage. Verstappen suffered some delays in FP1 with some damage on the floor in RB20 and Red Bull Racing is dealing with the issue. With the emergence of fast lap times on the soft tires, Leclercq was fastest with a time of 1 minute and 17.277 seconds, 0.381 seconds ahead of Verstappen. Verstappen finally joined practice after about 25 minutes, but was slightly out of sync with the other drivers in terms of running plan.

Sainz finished third, continuing his recovery from appendicitis two weeks after surgery, while Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso finished fourth and fifth respectively. Outstanding performance. Guanyu Zhou was 11th for Kick Sauber as the team addressed parking issues that have plagued them in recent races, while Daniel Ricciardo was 12th in front of his home crowd.