Formula 1 News: Oscar Piastri tops Australian GP Practice 2

Local favorite No. 81 Oscar Piastri, in the superior Rob Marshall-designed McLaren, (pictured) turned a lap of 1m19.729s to top Practice 2 for the 2026 Australian GP at Albert Park. It was the second session for the new F1 cars and they continue to be over 3-seconds per lap slower than the cars a year ago.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Piastri led a Mercedes powered car 1-2-3 with his best lap 0.214s faster than the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.

George Russell was 3rd quick in his #63 Mercedes, 0.320s behind Piastri’s McLaren.

The two Ferraris rounded out the top-4. Lewis Hamilton was 4th in the #44 red car, 0.321s behind Piastri while his teammate #16 Charles Leclerc was 5th, 0.562s behind after topping Practice 1.

6th quick, Max Verstappen, stopped in the pit lane at the beginning of the session when his RB22 got stuck in gear at the end of the pitlane, leading to a fairly lengthy return. He did not get back out until half the session was over. He put in a couple of push laps but then focused on race runs, so we do not know his true pace. He was 0.637s behind Piastri.

Lando Norris, who missed most of Practice 1, was 7th, 1.065s behind his McLaren teammate.

Arvind Lindblad, Isack Hadjar and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top-10.

Ferrari were fastest in FP1. Mercedes looked dominant in the first part of the second session. And then came Piastri, who nailed a lap of what is very much his home track – he is from Melbourne – to finish on top of the leaderboard.

McLaren believes they are half a step back from the other top teams, but not based on that performance. Yes, fuel loads are an unknown, but it was still a very tidy lap for the Australian.

The lower amount of downforce into the corners is causing lock ups, with the gravel and grass here properly punishing the drivers. Plenty of drivers locked up and went wide, including Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc and Hadjar. On heavy fuel, Verstappen went flying off after a snap of oversteer and losing part of his floor in the process.

The gravel bites in Albert Park 😳#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/md6VbTzKFX

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 6, 2026

Tomorrow is qualifying day, but first comes FP3, one final hour to hone those set-ups and get ready for qualifying and the race.

2026 Australian GP Practice 2 Results