Leclerc leads the two McLaren's in Practice 2

Charles Leclerc was the fastest driver around the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit but the Ferrari driver had both orange rockets close behind him.

Leclerc, who also topped the same session a year ago (with a 1m17.277s lap) set his time of 1m16.439s mid-session and got to watch as first Lando Norris and then Oscar Piastri ran him close.

It was Aussie favourite Piastri who would come up second fastest, with a gap of 0.124s to the flying Ferrari, and Norris right behind in third place, before the papaya team set their cars up for a race simulation on a Medium tyre to see out the remainder of the session. 

The second Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel, was 0.420s slower than Leclerc, but while the two-time Albert Park winner was settling in to life in red, the surprise result of the session was the speed of the Racing Bulls.

Yuki Tsunoda actually topped the session after 20 minutes, but his time of 1m16.784s was fourth fastest.

Even more impressive, his teammate Isack Hadjar was sixth fastest.

The French rookie was utterly unflustered on his first day as an F1® racing driver, even when he was baulked mid-session by one of the McLaren drivers.

Close behind the RBs was the faster of the Red Bull drivers.

Max Verstappen sat in the garage for much of the session, getting a significant suspension adjustment to the Red Bull RB21, but his time of 1m17.063s was close but not close enough to the championship squad’s ‘sister’ team.

Veteran Nico Hulkenberg was the eighth fastest for Audi Sauber, ahead of Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and George Russell (Mercedes-AMG).

Jack Doohan looked strong in 14th place, one place ahead of Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, while star rookie Kimi Antonelli was 16th in the second Mercedes-AMG.

Saturday’s F1® action starts with the third Practice session at 12:30 pm.