Leclerc asserts early dominance over Hamilton in blistering Australian GP practice

Charles Leclerc offered a glimpse into his potential early dominance over new Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton following the second practice session for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

FP2 generally provides an early window into how a team will likely perform going into Saturday's qualifying session, and it was Leclerc who set the pace with a lap of 1:16.439s around Melbourne's Albert Park.

It was a time just a quarter of a second slower than the leading time from Q2 for last year's grand prix, set by Leclerc's now former Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, who has since joined Williams.

Leclerc left his lower-fuel, soft-tyre run late in the window set aside for such running in the hour-long session, knocking McLaren's Oscar Piastri off the top spot by 0.124s.

Leclerc finished 0.420s ahead of seven-time F1 champion Hamilton, who had to settle for fifth quickest, and with a clear indicator the car at his disposal has so much more to offer.

Lando Norris, who was quickest in FP1, was third on the timesheet, 0.141s behind Leclerc and 0.117s down on local lad Piastri.

Norris had suggested in his media session on Thursday that he should not be considered favourite for this year's drivers' title, and warned of the threat he felt was there from Ferrari. At this stage, his words carry meaning. 

Racing Bulls ahead of Red Bull

The surprise package of the session was Racing Bulls, with Yuki Tsunoda fourth fastest, splitting Norris and Hamilton.

The Japanese driver's rookie team-mate Isack Hadjar underlined the potential of the car by slotting into sixth, with a quarter of a second separating the duo.

As for Red Bull, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen could only manage seventh, 0.624s adrift, with new team-mate Liam Lawson a lowly 17th, six-tenths of a second behind.

Nico Hulkenberg, who had "a big moment" early on, according to the German driver when he ran over the gravel at Turn 6 at high speed in his Stake, recovered to claim eighth, with Lance Stroll in his Aston Martin and Mercedes' George Russell completing the top 10, the latter 0.843s down.

On the hard tyre, Russell set the early benchmark with a lap of 1:17.565s, although he was quickly displaced by Williams' Carlos Sainz by a quarter of a second as the Spanish driver maintained his form from FP1. A later lap from Russell on the white-striped tyres saw him move to within a thousandth of a second.

It was Leclerc, though, who became the first driver to dip below the one minute-17 mark for a lap, posting a 1:16.794s. Hamilton then slotted into second, exactly four-tenths of a second off the pace of his new team-mate.

Just over 20 minutes into the session, the teams and drivers turned to the soft tyres, with Tsunoda setting the target, albeit only 0.010s ahead of Leclerc.

That came soon after Norris was poised to go quickest after purpling the first sector and setting a personal best in the second, only to wind down in the final sector.

Norris, though, was not to be thwarted as on his second push lap he duly netted the top spot on the timesheet by going two-tenths of a second faster than Tsunoda. At that stage, Piastri was four-tenths down.

When it came to the Ferraris switching to the softs, Hamilton slotted into third, almost three-tenths behind Norris. Leclerc, though then set the best lap of 1:16.439s, 0.420s ahead of Hamilton.

Piastri, who failed to get the most out of his first set of softs, made amends on his second set as he split Leclerc and Norris, finishing just over a tenth behind the former.

In the lower half of the timesheet, Williams duo Sainz and Alex Albon were 11th and 12th, followed by Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, with the Alpines of Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly 14th and 15th.

Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli was over a second back in 16th, followed by Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto in his Stake, and then Haas' Esteban Ocon.

Team-mate Oliver Bearman missed out on the entire session following his crash in FP1 which resulted in his car requiring a new engine and gearbox.