Oscar Piastri topped final practice at the Australian Grand Prix ahead of what’s shaping up to be a hotly contested battle for pole in qualifying later on Saturday.
Piastri set the benchmark at 1m 15.921s – just 0.006s slower than last year’s pole time – on his fifth lap on a set of soft tires.
George Russell followed the home favorite in the order. The Mercedes driver was just 0.039s off the pace, his team having apparently solved its Friday problems extracting pace from the C5 soft compounds.
Max Verstappen made it three cars separated by less than 0.1s, lapping 0.081s slower than Piastri. His Red Bull Racing machine still looked a handful, but the Dutchman was able to coax for more speed from it than Friday after overnight changes.
Verstappen could have gone faster still but for a wide moment at turn 11 that prompted him to abandon the lap.
It was a bittersweet result for the improved Red Bull, however, with Liam Lawson boxed after just two laps with what the team described as an air-side power unit issue.
Lawson is the only driver on the grid to have never competed at Albert Park in any category but will face qualifying without having completed a hot lap this weekend.
Charles Leclerc was a disappointed fourth for Ferrari after ending Friday as the fastest driver.
The Monegasque driver complained that the car was “very oversteery” on his way to a best lap 0.267s off the pace.
“We can review a little bit what we’re asking, because that doesn’t get me any confidence too much,” he said after logging his best lap.
Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli was fifth and 0.285s off the pace, keeping himself just ahead of the competitive Williams teammates Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
Having set identical times in FP2, Sainz and Albon were closely matched again, the former just 0.006s quicker than the latter.
Lewis Hamilton continued closing the gap to teammate Leclerc, the margin between them coming down to 0.19s, but that was good enough for only eighth in the classification ahead of Yuki Tsunoda for Racing Bulls.
Lando Norris completed the top 10 after lapping 0.676s slower than his session-topping teammate, but the Briton clearly had the pace to match Piastri, his position reflective of him having rolled out of the throttle out of the final corner of his fastest lap.
On a subsequent lap he set the fastest time of the session in the final sector, strongly suggesting last year’s title runner-up should be considered a pole contender.
Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was 11th ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar for Racing Bulls.
Lance Stroll was 14th for Aston Martin ahead of Alpine rookie Jack Doohan and Sauber veteran Nico Hulkenberg.
Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon completed the order in 17th and 18th respectively.
Oliver Bearman was classified 19th without a time after crashing for the second day in succession.
Bearman, who crashed his car at turn 10 in FP1 on his push lap of the weekend, made it just one corner further in the final practice session of the round before beaching himself in the gravel.
The crash was triggered by Bearman clipping the grass on approach, sending his car spinning off the road and ending his session immediately.
Fortunately the Briton avoided the barriers, but the team will have to wait until after the end of the session to receive the car and assess the damage.
“I think just wanting a bit too much too soon, which is my approach, which isn’t the right one for F1,” he admitted on Friday night. “In F2 you go straight to quali after the first practice session; in F1 you have two more. There’s no need to be straight on the limit.”
Having not heeded his own advice, Bearman will start qualifying later today having lapped the track just 12 times, none of which were fast laps.
Lawson was last after retiring to his garage with his power unit problem.
