Piastri fastest in F1 Australian GP final practice

by F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth

MELBOURNE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- McLaren's Oscar Piastri delighted his home fans by setting the fastest time in final practice for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

Bidding to become the first Australian to win his home Grand Prix, Piastri's best time of one minute 15.921 seconds was good enough to top the FP3 timesheets ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session, with his benchmark just 0.006s shy of Max Verstappen's pole position time last year.

Piastri's teammate Lando Norris was only 10th, but the Briton backed off at the end of what would have been his fastest qualifying simulation lap, and will likely also be in the fight for pole later on Saturday.

After an underwhelming Friday, Mercedes had a better FP3, with George Russell second, just 0.039s behind Piastri, and rookie Kimi Antonelli some 0.2s further back in fifth.

Reigning world champion Verstappen was third on a better day for the Dutchman, who had complained the day before that his Red Bull RB21 was suffering from handling issues that would be difficult to fix.

Verstappen's teammate Liam Lawson had another disappointing session, with his mechanics calling him into the pits early on with an apparent mechanical issue.

The New Zealander did not emerge from the garage for the rest of the hour, losing out on yet more track time ahead of qualifying, having also missed some of Friday's running with floor damage after a trip across the gravel.

The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were fourth and eighth respectively in a low-key session for the Scuderia, with Leclerc complaining of oversteer and a lack of confidence in his SF-25.

Behind the big four teams, Williams appeared best of the rest, with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon finishing sixth and seventh after largely trouble-free runs.

Earlier in the session, the pair had sat second and third after their race simulation runs on Hard compound rubber, suggesting that the Grove squad may be strong in both qualifying and race conditions.

At the back of the field, it was another nightmare session for Haas's Oliver Bearman. The Briton was first out on track after having missed the whole of FP2 following a crash in FP1, but spun at Turn 11 on his first push lap, beaching his Haas in the gravel trap and bringing out the red flag just three minutes into the hour.

A visibly disappointed Bearman did not return to the track, and now heads into qualifying having missed almost two entire practice sessions. ■