Formula 1

The FIA Formula 1 World Championship is officially back following the first two Free Practice sessions of the season at the FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2026 at Albert Park, Melbourne.

Ferrari and McLaren shared the honours during Friday practice at the season-opener, as Charles Leclerc topped the first practice session before hometown hero Oscar Piastri led the way in the second.

Leclerc set the early benchmark in Free Practice 1, posting a fastest lap of 1:20.267 to head a Ferrari one-two ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The Monegasque completed the session with the most laps of anyone in the field, underlining a strong start for Ferrari.

Max Verstappen finished third for Red Bull, followed by new teammate Isack Hadjar, while rookie Arvid Lindblad impressed on debut with fifth.

Australian Oscar Piastri placed sixth for McLaren, ahead of the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto completed the top 10.

The cars settled later in the day for Free Practice 2 with Piastri rising to the top of the order with a lap of 1:19.729. The McLaren driver finished two-tenths clear of Mercedes’ Antonelli, with Russell close behind in third.

Hamilton ended the session fourth, just one-thousandth of a second behind his former teammate in Russell, while Leclerc dropped to fifth. Verstappen placed sixth after running through the gravel late in the session.

Further down the order, Norris finished seventh ahead of Lindblad, Hadjar and Esteban Ocon, while several teams experienced interruptions to their running.

Teams now turn their attention to preparing for Saturday’s final practice and qualifying, beginning at 12.30pm.

Formula 2

Dino Beganovic set a 1:28.695 on the final lap of Qualifying to secure the first Formula 2 Pole Position of 2026 for DAMS.

Beganovic out-timed Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne and Alexander Dunne to the front of the grid, who finished second and third respectively.

Beganovic laid down the initial benchmark and a 1:29.953, before Stenshorne took over in provisional pole, until Nikola Tsolov delivered a strong 1:29.381.

The Red Flags were then out following a snap for Mari Boya putting the PREMA Racing driver in the barrier at Turn 12.

Qualifying restarted with 20 minutes remaining, allowing drivers to return to the pit lane for a fresh set of tyres.

Drivers rejoined the circuit once more with 12 minutes to go, but Gabriele Minì pulled to the side of the track citing an issue to his car. This brought out the red flags again.

Due to the delays, the session ran to time, leaving just three minutes on the clock as Qualifying resumed, enough time for just one final lap.

Provisional pole changed hands three times over on the final lap, setting the stage for a dramatic finish. Beganovic, however, again found the quickest time with a 1:28.695.

Noel León secured fourth ahead of Tsolov, who dropped slightly to the third row. Câmara was sixth ahead of Kush Maini, Oliver Goethe, Duerksen and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in P10.

The first race of the 2026 season takes place on Saturday, with the Sprint Race set to begin at 2.10pm.

Formula 3

A session of microseconds was all it took to decide who would start on pole position as Campos Racing’s Théophile Nael narrowly beat teammate Ugo Ugochukwu.

With his final lap of the day, the French driver completed a 1:34.187 to fight off Ugochukwu for pole by just 0.021s.

The result will give the Spanish team a 1-2 start for Sunday’s Feature Race, with TRIDENT’s Freddie Slater leading the second row.

Ugochukwu picked up where he left off in Free Practice, going to the top of the leaderboard with a 1:34.208 which put him 0.430s clear of Noah Stromsted in P2 after the first set of laps.

The drivers pushed on for their second attempts, but a Red Flag was out after Matteo De Palo in the barrier at the exit of Turn 10. The teams sent their drivers out on to the track on new sets of tyres.

The Campos driver returned to the pit lane and stayed in P1, while Australia’s James Wharton cut his lead to 0.413s for PREMA Racing.

Nicola Lacorte then climbed up to fifth for DAMS, ahead of Mattia Colnaghi, Taito Kato and home favourite Wharton, who was pushed down to eighth. Brando Badoer was ninth for Rodin Motorsport ahead of Stromsted in P10.

Nael, reentered the track later than the rest of the field, giving him the most worn in racing line to go on pole, beating his teammate, Ugochukwu by just 0.021s.

The third driver for Campos Racing and Australian Patrick Heuzenroeder, qualified 24th with a 1:35.156.

Van Amersfoort Racing pairing Enzo Deligny and Bruno del Pino were in P11 and P12 respectively, giving them a front row start for Saturday’s Sprint Race, scheduled to begin at 11:15am tomorrow morning.

Supercars

After not having touched their wheels for 24 hours, the Supercars grid was eager to get back on track 19 more laps of the Albert Park Street Circuit.

Brodie Kostecki would end up claiming back-to-back victories at the Melbourne SuperSprint, fighting through illness and pole sitter Matt Payne to win by half a second.

Payne started strong and pulled clear of the field initially, as early incidents involving Zach Bates and Macauley Jones spin at Turn 3, preceded Will Brown attempting an ambitious pass on Cooper Murray at Turn 11 that sent both cars into the gravel.

Brown later received a 15-second penalty, adding to a difficult start to his first season driving the Ford Mustang.

Further drama followed as Broc Feeney forced Chaz Mostert wide at Turn 11 during their fight for fourth, allowing Aaron Cameron to surge from eighth on the grid and into fourth.

Mostert suffered steering damage in the incident and slipped to 14th.

Kostecki overtook Payne at Turn 11 on Lap 5 and built a small gap, with Ryan Wood joining them at the front as the trio pulled away from the pack.

Kostecki ultimately held off a late challenge from Payne, while Wood secured Toyota’s first Supercars podium. Kai Allen finished fifth ahead of Jack Le Brocq, Feeney, Thomas Randle, Andre Heimgartner and Anton De Pasquale.

Porsche Carrera Cup

The second race of the Porsche Carrera Cup opening round is in the books with Tekworkx Motorsport’s Marcus Amand taking the chequered flag at Albert Parkby just over half a second after 30 minutes of racing.

Rounding out the podium was RAM Motorsport’s Dylan O’Keefe, who fought hard in his bid to overcome the eventual race winner, and Harri Jones for McElrea Racing just two seconds of the runner-up.

Glen Wood settled for fourth, meanwhile Amand’s teammate in Clay Osborne finished fifth.

The second half of the top 10 read Angelo Mouzouris, Aaron Love, Jake Santalucia, Max Geoghegan and Tom Bewley.

The Porsche Carrera Cup returns to Albert Park on Saturday evening for the final event of the day, launching off the starting line at 6.40pm.

The post Albert Park enjoys full program of racing on Friday appeared first on Motorsport Australia.

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