F1 LIVE | FP2 for the 2023 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne

FP2 Live | Australian Grand Prix

Who will come close to Red Bull Racing?

In Australia, Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin will do their utmost best to make things difficult for Red Bull Racing in the third round of the 2023 F1 championship. In Bahrain, Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were unbeatable at half speed and in Saudi Arabia, the two briefly showed their real speed. The competition did not come close.

The second practice session usually, together with the first session, gives a reasonable idea of which teams are fast over a single lap or in the race. The Albert Park Circuit is faster than ever with four DRS zones, so the analysis will be interesting. Should the other teams fail to get close to Red Bull, we can probably start watching for a battle between the two Red Bull drivers.

Best of the rest 

Behind the top four, Alpine are in no man's land, after which the rest of the teams are very close for the final points. Haas scored a point in Jeddah, Alfa Romeo and Williams did so in Bahrain. Alpha Tauri and McLaren are furthest away from the points so far, although Oscar Piastri did make it to Q3 in Jeddah and Yuki Tsunoda twice finished narrowly outside the points with P11. If the top five teams finish, all these teams will have to do without points. If anyone at the front drops out, it will be a fight for the scraps that remain.

At Albert Park, Michael Schumacher is still the record holder with four wins. Ferrari are also the most successful team with nine wins in total. Charles Leclerc won last year's edition. Of the current drivers on the grid, Lewis Hamilton is the only one with two wins behind his name. Besides Leclerc, Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas are the only other drivers with a victory in Melbourne. Verstappen only has one podium to his name in Australia.