Piastri tops second Australian Grand Prix practice as Mercedes teams surge forward

Oscar Piastri ended Friday practice at his home Australian Grand Prix with the fastest time as the Mercedes-engined cars surged back into contention.

Piastri set the pace at 1m 19.729s with his first run on soft tires around halfway through the session to head the field by 0.214s. The Australian, who hails from Melbourne, eclipsed Mercedes teammates Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, who had rocketed to top spot at the start of the qualifying-style soft-tire runs. Antonelli led Russell, the Italian 0.214s off the pace. The second Mercedes car was 0.106s further back.

Ferrari continued to threaten the top of the order, however, with Lewis Hamilton only 0.321s off the pace as the lead scarlet car. Teammate Charles Leclerc, who had topped FP1, was 0.562s adrift of Piastri in fifth.

The Scuderia was particularly competitive through the middle sector, which is dominated by the long back straight, where energy management is at its most extreme.

Max Verstappen was sixth, but the Dutchman looked less comfortable behind the wheel, and his session included a wild off through the gravel at the Turn 9-10 chicane that appeared to cost him some bodywork, though he continued with his practice program.

Reigning champion Lando Norris was well adrift of his session-topping teammate. After missing much of FP1 to a gearbox issue, Norris’s best FP2 time was 1.065s slower than Piastri’s benchmark, with the deficit spread evenly over all three sectors.

Arvid Lindblad impressed again, with the Racing Bulls rookie finishing the session eighth and beating Red Bull Racing stablemate Isack Hadjar by 0.019s. Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 for Haas ahead of teammate Oliver Bearman in 11th.

Nico Hulkenberg kept Audi on the periphery of the top 10, the German ending the day 12th ahead of teammate Gabriel Bortoleto in 14th, with Liam Lawson splitting them in 13th.

Alex Albon completed the session in 15th, having stopped on track near the end of FP1, but teammate Carlos Sainz retired with an unspecified issue after just 10 laps, leaving him 17th, behind Pierre Gasly.

Franco Colapinto will see the stewards after the session for traveling too slowly on the racing line down the front straight, triggering avoiding action by the fast-closing Hamilton. The Argentine finished the session 18th ahead of Valtteri Bottas.

Aston Martin racked up a much-improved 31 laps between Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll after team boss Adrian Newey admitted the team was down to its last batteries for each car. Alonso was the quicker of the two, lapping 4.933s off the pace, which put him just within 107 perent of Piastri’s leading time.

Only drivers who are within 107 percent of the best time set in Q1 are allowed to start the grand prix. Alonso's teammate Stroll, however, fell half a second outside that threshold, the Canadian 1.154s adrift after retiring from the session with just 13 laps to his name.

Sergio Perez completed the order without a time. A telemetry problem in his Cadillac kept him in his garage for much of the hour, and he stopped on track at the beginning of what would have been his first timed lap.

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