Australian GP: Norris tops FP3 for McLaren, disaster for Aston Martin

Sebastian Vettel experienced a rapid accident leaving Turn 10 preceding colleague Lance Stroll crashed at Turn 11 in the end organizes, finishing the meeting.

Subsequent to missing the initial two races of the time because of COVID-19, Vettel’s troublesome re-visitation of activity in Australia went on as he crashed out 20 minutes into the meeting. Vettel lost the back of his Aston Martin AMR22 vehicle leaving the quick left-right grouping, making him go through the rock and into the divider.

Vettel immediately apologized to the group over the radio prior to escaping the vehicle safe and afterward getting back to the enclosure on the rear of a bike being riden by a marshal.

The accident came after Vettel lost pursuing on Friday a motor issue sidelined him in FP1 and kept him from taking any part in FP2. He likewise got a €5,000 fine for driving a bike unapproved on target toward the finish of FP1 to return to the enclosure.

Things went from bad to worse for Aston Martin when Stroll lost control of his car at Turn 11, causing him to run through the gravel and into the wall with five minutes remaining.

Stroll was unharmed, but the front-left corner of his car was damaged in the impact, leaving Aston Martin with a significant amount of work to complete ahead of qualifying.

The red flag meant that Norris took top spot for McLaren in FP3 after most of the front-running drivers failed to get in a low-fuel run at the very end of the session.

Norris posted a best lap season of 1m19.117s on the delicate compound tire to complete one 10th of a second clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The British driver was told to dial down under the late warning because of an advance notice showing up on his dashboard.

Leclerc spent a large part of the meeting vieing for best position alongside Ferrari colleague Carlos Sainz, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who partook in a shockingly aggressive meeting.

Leclerc, Perez and Alonso were covered by 0.026 seconds in second to fourth, while Sainz sat two or three tenths behind in fifth spot.

Daniel Ricciardo finished a good meeting for McLaren as his completed 6th, a large portion of a second off his colleague’s time, while Max Verstappen was seventh for Red Bull.

Verstappen set his best time on the medium compound tire however had an interesting meeting that saw him turn right on time at Turn 13 preceding nearly losing the back of his vehicle going through Turn 1 while on a late push lap. “I don’t get why I’m turning,” Verstappen said over the radio. “Feeling the equilibrium at the moment’s truly hard.”

Lewis Hamilton likewise battled for Mercedes, completing eighth after barely keeping away from the divider while running wide at Turn 11 right off the bat in the meeting. Previous partner Valtteri Bottas took more time for Alfa Romeo in front of Yuki Tsunoda, who finished the best 10 for AlphaTauri.

George Russell and Pierre Gasly took eleventh and twelfth separately in front of Esteban Ocon, who was north of eight tenths of a second off Alonso’s time in the sister Alpine. Mick Schumacher completed fourteenth for Haas in front of tenderfoot Guanyu Zhou and Williams’ Alex Albon.

Kevin Magnussen finished FP3 in seventeenth spot subsequent to battling through Friday following some for the time being queasiness, while Nicholas Latifi sat eighteenth in front of the two Aston Martins.

Australian Grand Prix FP3 times:

Cla	#	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	4	Lando Norris		McLaren	Mercedes	12	1’19.117			241.298
2	16	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	15	1’19.249	0.132	0.132	240.896
3	11	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	Red Bull	17	1’19.265	0.148	0.016	240.847
4	14	Fernando Alonso		Alpine	Renault	15	1’19.275	0.158	0.010	240.817
5	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.		Ferrari	Ferrari	17	1’19.419	0.302	0.144	240.380
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo		McLaren	Mercedes	14	1’19.693	0.576	0.274	239.554
7	1	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Red Bull	16	1’19.809	0.692	0.116	239.206
8	44	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	13	1’19.896	0.779	0.087	238.945
9	77	Valtteri Bottas		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	17	1’20.008	0.891	0.112	238.611
10	22	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	12	1’20.071	0.954	0.063	238.423
11	63	George Russell		Mercedes	Mercedes	16	1’20.096	0.979	0.025	238.348
12	10	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	14	1’20.133	1.016	0.037	238.238
13	31	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	Renault	14	1’20.205	1.088	0.072	238.025
14	47	Mick Schumacher		Haas	Ferrari	17	1’20.692	1.575	0.487	236.588
15	24	Zhou Guanyu		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	16	1’20.836	1.719	0.144	236.167
16	23	Alex Albon		Williams	Mercedes	16	1’20.958	1.841	0.122	235.811
17	20	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	14	1’21.025	1.908	0.067	235.616
18	6	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	Mercedes	14	1’21.050	1.933	0.025	235.543
19	18	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	Mercedes	11	1’21.636	2.519	0.586	233.852
20	5	Sebastian Vettel		Aston Martin	Mercedes	5