{"id":524132,"date":"2026-03-07T06:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524132\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:44:17","slug":"f1-news-2026-australian-grand-prix-free-practice-3-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524132\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: 2026 Australian Grand Prix Free Practice 3 Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Australian
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGeorge Russell was fastest during third practice in Melbourne. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n

George Russell romped to the fastest time in final practice for the Australian Grand Prix<\/a> with a 1m19.053s, finishing six tenths clear of Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc was third after leading much of the session, ahead of FP2 pace-setter Oscar Piastri, who was more than a second adrift of Russell\u2019s benchmark.<\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar was fifth for Red Bull, beating teammate Max Verstappen, while Kimi Antonelli finished seventh despite bringing out a late red flag after crashing heavily at Turn 2.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris was eighth for McLaren ahead of Audi\u2019s Gabriel Bortoleto and Haas rookie Oliver Bearman, who rounded out the top 10.<\/p>\n

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix begins at 4pm AEDT.<\/p>\n

Pos.
\nNo.
\nDriver
\nTeam
\nTime \/ Gap
\nLaps<\/p>\n

1
\n63
\nGeorge Russell
\nMercedes
\n1:19.053
\n23<\/p>\n

2
\n44
\nLewis\u00a0Hamilton
\nFerrari
\n+0.616s
\n22<\/p>\n

3
\n16
\nCharles\u00a0Leclerc
\nFerrari
\n+0.774s
\n20<\/p>\n

4
\n81
\nOscar\u00a0Piastri
\nMcLaren
\n+1.034s
\n17<\/p>\n

5
\n6
\nIsack\u00a0Hadjar
\nRed Bull Racing
\n+1.084s
\n15<\/p>\n

6
\n3
\nMax\u00a0Verstappen
\nRed Bull Racing
\n+1.144s
\n15<\/p>\n

7
\n12
\nKimi\u00a0Antonelli
\nMercedes
\n+1.271s
\n18<\/p>\n

8
\n1
\nLando\u00a0Norris
\nMcLaren
\n+1.390s
\n22<\/p>\n

9
\n5
\nGabriel\u00a0Bortoleto
\nAudi
\n+1.406s
\n19<\/p>\n

10
\n87
\nOliver\u00a0Bearman
\nHaas F1 Team
\n+1.725s
\n18<\/p>\n

11
\n41
\nArvid\u00a0Lindblad
\nRacing Bulls
\n+1.785s
\n15<\/p>\n

12
\n30
\nLiam\u00a0Lawson
\nRacing Bulls
\n+1.837s
\n13<\/p>\n

13
\n31
\nEsteban\u00a0Ocon
\nHaas F1 Team
\n+1.930s
\n19<\/p>\n

14
\n27
\nNico\u00a0Hulkenberg
\nAudi
\n+2.014s
\n22<\/p>\n

15
\n10
\nPierre\u00a0Gasly
\nAlpine
\n+2.018s
\n26<\/p>\n

16
\n43
\nFranco\u00a0Colapinto
\nAlpine
\n+2.360s
\n22<\/p>\n

17
\n23
\nAlexander\u00a0Albon
\nWilliams
\n+2.611s
\n17<\/p>\n

18
\n14
\nFernando\u00a0Alonso
\nAston Martin
\n+3.667s
\n20<\/p>\n

19
\n77
\nValtteri\u00a0Bottas
\nCadillac
\n+4.461s
\n12<\/p>\n

20
\n11
\nSergio\u00a0Perez
\nCadillac
\n+5.344s
\n21<\/p>\n

21
\n55
\nCarlos\u00a0Sainz
\nWilliams<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n


\"\"\/
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell was fastest during third practice in Melbourne. Image: XPB Images George Russell romped to the fastest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,27784,817,813,816,3875,85],"class_list":["post-524132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-gp","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}