Australian GP FP3: George Russell shows Mercedes pace, Kimi Antonelli crashes, Ferrari chase
F1 NewsSaturday, 07 March 2026 at 03:56
George Russell showed why he is considered as favorite for the 2026 Formula 1 season as he topped the final practice session for the 2026 Australian Grand Prix and by quite a margin.
Russell delivered a lap time of 1:19.053 which was over six tenths faster the Lewis Hamilton who was second in the Ferrari with Charles Leclerc following in third and 0.774s off the pace.
Russell's time was still way off the best time from FP3 in Melbourne in 2025 which was 1:15.921 posted by Oscar Piastri.
Ferrari emerged as Mercedes' closest rivals while Piastri was fourth fastest for McLaren followed by the Red Bulls in fifth and sixth for Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen respectively.
We may not have seen the best effort from the Dutchman who seemed to have an issue with his steering wheel on that final qualifying run as he ended the session over one second off the pace.
It was a session of mixed fortunes for Mercedes as Kimi Antonelli binned his W17 towards the end of the session after losing control at Turn 2 putting his team in a race against time trying to build that car ahead of qualifying.
The Italian was seventh fastest with reigning F1 Champion, Lando Norris, in eighth after having an underwhelming session.
Audi did well with Gabriel Bortoleto in ninth as Ollie Bearman completed the top ten with Haas.
Buildup toward FP3
As F1 starts its second day of running in Melbourne, we edge closer towards finally finding out the pecking order of the 2026 season.
It was clear from Friday that the top four remain so, but their order is yet to be clear as each of them have shown some strengths while McLaren suffered from reliability.
Ferrari topped FP1 and Red Bull followed, but then McLaren took over with Piastri in FP2 with Mercedes chasing them.
Many believe the sandbags are still on at Mercedes so will they show their true pace in FP3? Some of it at least?
Just before FP3 began, the FIA revealed that the fourth straight mode zone (Turn 8 to Turn 9) was removed based on feedback from drivers who claimed that the cars were losing a lot of downforce which they felt was risky given the nature of that part of the track.
New for 2026: Straight Mode 👀
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 5, 2026
There will be five zones at the season opener in Melbourne 🇦🇺#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/nvE1ovJ7f9
FIA single seater head Nikolas Tombazis revealed that not all teams were happy with this change but insisted safety was a priority and it wasn't possible to apply changes on some cars and not the others.
However, it seems the teams pushed back hard, claiming the decision rendered all the data collected on Friday useless, and the FIA to make a U-turn on that decision and keep things as they were.
So five straight mode zones remain at Albert Park.
FP3 Session Highlights
The start of FP3 was delayed by 20 minutes due to repairs being done to the barriers after a crash in the Formula 3 race.
When it finally started, the conditions were clear as temperatures were 34 degrees Celsius for the track and 20 for the ambient conditions.
The start of FP3 has been delayed 🚨
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 7, 2026
Barrier repairs are ongoing at Turn 5 after an incident in Formula 3 #F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/Nsxkk4q1oS
Colapinto was the first driver to head out on track once the green light at the end of the pitlane was illuminated.
Fernando Alonso was soon out on track as well in the Aston Martin.
Almost ten minutes into the session, we had the first Yellow Flag as Carlos Sainz came to a halt at the pitlane entrance. That soon became a Virtual Safety Car.
Sainz's engineer told him it appeared to be game over and that he would inform him.
The Spaniard soon jumped out of the car and walked back to the pits.
🟡 VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR 🟡
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 7, 2026
Carlos Sainz has stopped at the entry of the pit lane 🚨#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/wpTwfmN9ch
Nico Hulkenberg reported that the head rest on his Audi was a bit loose.
However, moments later, the VSC became a full Red Flag and all the drivers returned to their respective pits.
The session was restarted with less the 40 minutes remaining as driver quickly made their way out on track to make up for the lost time.
We're back to Green Flag running! 🟢
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 7, 2026
Lando leads us out 💨#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/8qc1h4heRe
The drivers went on doing some hot laps on Soft tyres, keeping in mind that they were getting ready for qualifying later on in the day.
Valtteri Bottas had a heavy lockup, both front tyres locking up, while Hamilton suffered from a lockup at the rear axle and went wide, both at Turn 3.
Then Alex Albon stopped briefly at Turn 4, but then moved again and was on his way slowly as it seemed he was having an issue with the power unit.
Alex Albon briefly stopped on the exit of Turn 4
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 7, 2026
Luckily the Williams driver is now back up to racing speed! 👀#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/L1RTnyNlAL
Soon after that, Aston Martin confirmed that Lance Stroll will not be joining the session at any point. Alonso was doing some running though.
But then with 12 minutes to go, Antonelli found the barriers at Turn 2 as he lost control after running a bit wide on the kerbs.
As a result, the Italian's W17 was smashed to pieces and the Red Flag was out. He walked away safely though.
Russell was on a flying lap at the time and putting in fastest sectors but had to abort so we couldn't really get an idea about the true pace of Mercedes.
Kimi Antonelli into the barrier! 😱
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 7, 2026
Here's the sizeable crash which ended the Mercedes driver's FP3 👇#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/ZC1PrM1JE0
The session was resumed with less than five minutes on the clock as cars lined up in the pitlane to make sure some late running is possible.
After some final qualifying laps, the session was concluded with practice starts.
Australian GP FP3 Classification
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