Alonso fastest in wet, bumpy Albert Park

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets ahead of Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc in a rain-hit second practice at the Australian Grand Prix yesterday, but world champion Max Verstappen went fastest for the day.

The Spanish veteran followed up his podium finishes at the first two races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia with another eye-opening run.

He powered around the bumpy Albert Park circuit under darkening clouds before rain fell in a best time of one minute 18.887 seconds among his 13 laps, bettering his fourth place in the first one-hour session.

“The afternoon was obviously impacted by the rain, so there is still some work to do tomorrow,” said Alonso.

“We need to learn more about the tyres and the long-run pace of the car because there was not much time for that today. So far though the car seems to behave well.”

Leclerc, who won in Australia last year, came an encouraging second after Ferrari’s early season reliability and pace issues, nearly half a second adrift but ahead of Verstappen.

The Red Bull pilot, the early championship leader, clocked a 1:18.790 in the first practice when he had an outof-character spin, which was better than Alonso’s second session best.

But the Dutchman had no decent opportunity to improve on it on a wet track, saying it was slippery and he had low grip.

“It was difficult to tell how the car felt as we never got a window where I thought we were on top of the tyres,” he said.

“We’ll look over the data tonight and see what we have to do tomorrow. The conditions should be clearer for the rest of the weekend, so we can focus on that.”

Red Bull are attempting to score a third consecutive 1-2 finish for the first time in the team’s history in Melbourne after their dominance in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Verstappen’s teammate and Jeddah winner Sergio Perez came seventh.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes was a surprise second in the opening practice but could only manage a disappointing 13th in FP2.

“This morning was good, but this afternoon wasn’t as good,” the Briton said.

“We made some changes after FP1 that didn’t quite work and we will look to revert this evening.”

His teammate George Russell was fourth ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon sixth.

McLaren’s Lando Norris, Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly in the other Alpine rounded out the top 10.