Piastri fastest in final practice of home Australian GP
15th March 2025McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, home hero, set the fastest lap time in the final practice of the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Feature image credit: McLaren F1
It has been an opening weekend for Oliver Bearman to forget in his debut season with Haas F1. He missed the entirety of Free Practice 2, having crashed in FP1, but in the opening minutes of FP3, the Briton beached his car at turn 11.
Replays showed that Bearman touched a patch of grass on the corner entry, which sent his VF-25 into a spin and across the gravel. He came to a stop and beached the car.
Red Bull’s Liam Lawson also had his issues as the team confirmed the Kiwi’s car had either a power unit or a power unit system problem (on the air side), which affected his running. Lawson did not set a lap time.
This meant that only 18 drivers set lap times in the final practice session of the opening race weekend of the 2025 season.
How final practice ended…
The top three drivers topped the timing boards within a tenth of each other as Piastri set the pace with a 1:15.921, Russell finished 0.039s off the McLaren, whereas Verstappen trailed the home hero by 0.081s.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped out in fourth place ahead of Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli, who came in fifth. The two Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon finished sixth and seventh.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton occupied eighth ahead of Racing Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and McLaren’s Lando Norris, in ninth and 10th respectively.
Formula 2’s 2024 world champion and Kick Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto completed the session in 11th. The Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan finished 12th and 15th, sandwiching Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 13th and 14th.
Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg led the bottom three drivers in 16th as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Haas’ Esteban Ocon completed the 18 drivers who set lap times in 17th and 18th.
Read more Formula 1 here:
- Leclerc fastest in Australian GP FP2 ahead of both McLarens
- Lando Norris fastest in F1 Australian GP FP1 as Bearman crashes
- Stefano Domenicali remains F1 President and CEO through 2029
- Kick Sauber confirm Jonathan Wheatley’s start date as Team Principal
- McLaren confirm ‘multi-year’ contract extension for Oscar Piastri
- Toto Wolff believes F1 rivals hold early ‘performance advantage’ in Australian GP
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
