F1 LIVE | Third free practice for the 2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix
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The second day of the race weekend in Melbourne has arrived. FP1 was hampered by a couple of red flags, and rain washed out the second half of FP2. This means teams will be keen to get some running completed in FP3.
FP3 Liveblog: Australian Grand Prix
FP1 proved a highly entertaining session, in which Max Verstappen immediately beat the competition. Rain threw a spanner in the works during the second Friday practice session, but not for Fernando Alonso: the Aston Martin driver closed FP2 with the fastest time.
So the normally representative second free practice session provided little valuable insight for the Formula 1 teams on this occasion. Unless it rains on Sunday, of course. For now, however, the weather forecast seems to point to a dry race and so F1 drivers will want to cover as much mileage as possible during the final free practice session of the weekend.
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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.