{"id":44786,"date":"2026-03-07T09:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=44786"},"modified":"2026-03-07T09:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:50:16","slug":"australian-grand-prix-fp3-george-russell-tops-final-practice-as-mercedes-leads-ferrari-at-albert-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/formula-1\/australian-grand-prix-fp3-george-russell-tops-final-practice-as-mercedes-leads-ferrari-at-albert-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Grand Prix FP3: George Russell tops final practice as Mercedes leads Ferrari at Albert Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final practice session ahead of qualifying for the 2026 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix<\/strong> delivered another twist as George Russell set the fastest time in FP3 at Albert Park<\/strong>, putting Mercedes at the top of the timing sheets.<\/p>\n

Russell clocked a 1:19.053<\/strong> lap to finish quickest in the session, completing 22 laps and edging out the Ferraris that had shown strong pace earlier in the weekend.<\/p>\n

Ferrari close behind Mercedes<\/h3>\n

Lewis Hamilton<\/strong>, now racing for Ferrari, finished second in the session, 0.616 seconds behind Russell<\/strong>, while his teammate Charles Leclerc secured third place<\/strong>, just 0.774 seconds off the fastest lap<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The strong Ferrari performance continues the trend seen across the weekend, with the Scuderia consistently fighting at the front during the opening rounds of practice.<\/p>\n

McLaren and Red Bull in the mix<\/h3>\n

Home favourite Oscar Piastri<\/strong> finished fourth for McLaren, continuing his solid weekend in Melbourne after topping FP2 on Friday.<\/p>\n

Red Bull placed two drivers in the top six, with Isack Hadjar in fifth<\/strong> and Max Verstappen in sixth<\/strong>, both just over one second away from Russell\u2019s benchmark lap.<\/p>\n

Antonelli crash adds drama<\/h3>\n

Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli<\/strong> ended FP3 in seventh position but his session ended dramatically after a heavy crash in the closing minutes at Turn 1. Despite the violent double impact, the young Italian confirmed over team radio that he was unharmed.<\/p>\n

The crash leaves the Mercedes crew facing a tight turnaround to repair the car ahead of qualifying later on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Full FP3 top 10 \u2013 Australian Grand Prix<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Position<\/th>\nDriver<\/th>\nTeam<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1<\/td>\nGeorge Russell<\/td>\nMercedes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nLewis Hamilton<\/td>\nFerrari<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nCharles Leclerc<\/td>\nFerrari<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nOscar Piastri<\/td>\nMcLaren<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nIsack Hadjar<\/td>\nRed Bull<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nMax Verstappen<\/td>\nRed Bull<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nKimi Antonelli<\/td>\nMercedes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nLando Norris<\/td>\nMcLaren<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nGabriel Bortoleto<\/td>\nAudi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nOliver Bearman<\/td>\nHaas<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What it means before qualifying<\/h3>\n

With Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren all showing strong pace<\/strong>, qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix looks set to be tightly contested. Russell\u2019s fastest lap in FP3 suggests Mercedes could challenge for pole position, but Ferrari and McLaren remain firmly in the fight.<\/p>\n

Attention now turns to qualifying at Albert Park<\/strong>, where the grid for the opening race of the 2026 Formula 1 season will be decided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final practice session ahead of qualifying for the 2026 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix delivered another twist as George\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":44787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44788,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44786\/revisions\/44788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}