Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in FP2 before the rain came down over Albert Park, leaving Charles Leclerc second for Ferrari and Max Verstappen third for Red Bull.

First practice for the 2023 Australian Grand Prix saw Verstappen set the pace in front of Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez under cloudy skies at Melbourne. But the opening session was also stopped by a red flag triggered by a lack of GPS, before Logan Sargeant’s Williams came to a halt and brought out the second stoppage of that hour.

After 20 minutes of FP2, Alonso was top of the timesheets with a lap of 1m 18.887s. Leclerc was 0.445s back in P2 and Verstappen was 0.615s off Alonso in P3. Carlos Sainz (P5) and Leclerc broke the silence – every driver back in the pits due to the rain – with some sighting runs on softs, but they confirmed that the track was too wet for slick running.