Verstappen started off the practice session in first place, but Carlos Sainz soon took over by setting a faster time. His initial time of 1m20.378s on medium tires was beaten by Verstappen’s 1m19.759s with another medium tire attempt. Then, Sainz made his second lap even faster with a 1m19.695s to secure the top spot again.
Just a few minutes after Alonso raced on the track, his best time was 1m18.887s. For most of the session it remained as the top lap in that area.
Rain started falling at Albert Park before a quarter of an hour had passed; people noticed it especially at the first corners where Verstappen had lost control of his car and accidentally drifted off course quickly after Turn 2’s left side.
Just before things got worse, Leclerc was in second place and Alonso and Lando Norris had to move far away at the first turn. The people in the grandstands started to put on hats and coats as it got colder. Norris then went too far and ended up going through a patch of grass and a pile of gravel before he could continue.
At the Turn 9 left, Lance Stroll slightly hit the wall and all cars returned to their pits as it was very slippery. Then some of them went back out with soft tires at the halfway mark. George Russell followed with an intermediate tire but had to pit shortly afterward because Ferrari cars were not doing well on slicks and the wet track didn’t help Mercedes either.
Esteban Ocon, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen took their cars out on the track but they didn’t actually do any racing. Near the end of the session, more cars went back on the track, including Verstappen’s. They were trying to get data about how it would be if the race had to start in similar weather conditions as today. They were also doing practice starts off of a certain point in the pit lane.
The race was wet and none of the competitors was able to get a good time. Stroll and Russell almost crashed into the wall after Turn 3, but Stroll also had a second close call when his car slid off and went through the gravel at the same corner.
Alonso, Leclerc and Verstappen had the best times in the end, followed by Russell, Sainz, Ocon, and Sergio Perez in seventh place.
Perez was about to beat Alonso’s best lap time and he was using soft tires, but he had to give up on his lap when he saw Alfa Romeo driven by Zhou Guanyu at the fast corner.
Lando Norris, Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly came above tenth place in this race.
Logan Sargeant couldn’t take part in FP2 because Williams team encountered some electrical issues which prevented him being part of FP1.
