2024 F1 Australian Grand Prix - Free Practice 3 results

Charles Leclerc goes into qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix chasing a first pole position for 2024 after pipping Max Verstappen in final practice.

The Ferrari driver was 0.02s up on the reigning World Champion with Carlos Sainz clocking the third fastest time.

Red Bull dominated the early part of the session as Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen traded fastest lap times despite both complaining that their brakes were “not biting”.

It was all change as Carlos Sainz came through with a 1:16.791 to lead at the halfway point in the hour-long session with Charles Leclerc making it a Ferrari 1-2.

The top eight spots on the timesheet saw the teams line up in formation with Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, and Aston Martin.

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Swapping to fresh soft tyres late in the session for qualifying simulations, many of the drivers found it difficult to get pace out of Pirelli’s C5s and either went with two warm-up laps or did a cooldown between two flying laps.

The session ended with Leclerc quickest on the soft tyres, 0.020s up on Verstappen while Sainz in third, 0.077s, set his time on the mediums.

1 Charles LECLERC 1:16.714 22 laps 2 Max VERSTAPPEN +0.020 28 laps 3 Carlos SAINZ +0.077 20 laps 4 Lewis HAMILTON +0.092 20 laps 5 George RUSSELL +0.172 23 laps 6 Fernando ALONSO +0.283 20 laps 7 Sergio PEREZ +0.300 28 laps 8 Oscar PIASTRI +0.373 19 laps 9 Lance STROLL +0.627 22 laps 10 Lando NORRIS +0.776 22 laps 11 Yuki TSUNODA +0.959 19 laps 12 Valtteri BOTTAS +1.038 20 laps 13 Alexander ALBON +1.045 23 laps 14 Guanyu ZHOU +1.162 19 laps 15 Esteban OCON +1.206 18 laps 16 Nico HULKENBERG +1.227 17 laps 17 Kevin MAGNUSSEN +1.247 18 laps 18 Daniel RICCIARDO +1.249 20 laps 19 Pierre GASLY +1.676 19 laps

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