Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2024: Friday wrap

The Porsche Paynter Dixon Porsche Carerra Cup Australia wrapped up the day's action. (Photos: Edge Photographics, McLaren and Revved Photography)

The world’s premiere motorsport category hit the Albert Park circuit for the first time today, with two completed practice sessions, which were topped by Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.   Both Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo took part in each session, but it was the McLaren youngster who had a more successful day, finishing both sessions in the top 10.   In the day’s opening one-hour session, which saw Williams’ Alex Albon experience a big crash at turn eight, Piastri just managed to sneak into the top 10 with his time three and half tens off his McLaren teammate.   Four tenths of Piastri in P11 was Ricciardo, who ended up more than one and half tenths faster than Albon in 12th,    In practice two, Piastri managed to work his way up the order to seventh, eight tenths off Leclerc, while Ricciardo went slightly the other way to P12.    Practice two proved faster than the first session with Ricciardo going faster than Norris’ best time by three hundredths of a second.   Formula 1 will have one more practice at 12:30on AEDT before Qualifying begins at 4pm.

Dennis Hauger has just edged out Kimi Antonelli in a thrilling FIA Formula 2 qualifying session after a dramatic session featured a late flurry of timesheet-topping laps.   Multiple red flags occurred during the session, but in the end, Hauger produced a lightning quick lap of Albert Park to post the only time under the 1:29 mark, as he secured pole position by more than four tenths.   The pole setting lap came at the expense of Antonelli, who had briefly held pole position after the Italian replaced Kush Maini on top spot.    In his final lap of the session, Maini was on track for a time that would have been better than Hauger’s, only for his Invicta Racing teammate Gabriel Bortoleto to slow him down when re-joining the track after going off in the final sector.   Earlier in the day, Hauger topped the timesheets in a thrilling finale, where he went just one thousandth of a second ahead of Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar.   Formula 2 will be back tomorrow with the Sprint Race at 2:25pm AEDT.

Christian Mansell will start the FIA Formula 3 Championship’s Sprint Race from the second row after finishing an entertaining qualifying session in P10.   The New South Welshman’s return to Albert Park started off strong with a decent showing in both of the category’s two sessions on Friday as he occupied the top 10 for most of the day.   In the morning’s practice session, Mansell posted the eighth fastest time and was just eight tenths off session winner Gabriele Minì, while posting the fastest time out of the three ART Grand Prix drivers.   Qualifying was less successful, but Mansell was as high as sixth during the session that had multiple interruptions, but eventually qualified on the fifth row for Sunday’s feature race, while Leonardo Fornaroli secured pole position ahead of Mini.   Fellow Aussie Tommy Smith had a bit more of a difficult time though, with the Victorian qualifying 30th.   Tomorrow’s sprint race will be at 11.15amAEDT.   

Will Brown has charged back to the top of the Repco Supercars Championship standings after a dominant victory in the Supersprint’s second outing of the MSS Security Melbourne SuperSprint.   Starting on the front row alongside polesitter Cameron Waters, a strong start off the line for the Queenslander saw him snatch the lead off the Tickford Racing star very early into the opening lap.   From that point onwards, Brown led the field for the whole 19-lap race and crossed the line with the victory and the fastest lap bonus points, while Mark Winterbottom and Matt Payne rounded out the podium after a dramatic end involving Broc Feeney.   Feeney occupied second place for much of the race, having replaced Waters midway through the race before the contact between the two saw Waters fall outside the top five and Feeney into third behind Winterbottom.   Feeney then fought his way back ahead of Winterbottom and was on track to finish in third place before a mistake on the penultimate lap saw him drop off the podium behind Winterbottom and    Two qualifying sessions for Supercars will kick off Saturday’s action at 9am AEDT before the third race of the round runs at 5:35pm AEDT.

Harri Jones has picked up where he left off yesterday, comfortably winning the second race of the popular one make series' round at Albert Park.

In what was a fairly straightforward affair, Jones led from lights out to the chequered flag, leading Dale Wood and Ryder Quinn for the whole race.

Wrapping up the day's proceedings, the Porsche race took place in the setting sun as the top remained unchanged throughout the top five as Scott Pye and Nick McBride finished five seconds behind the third placed Quinn.

In Pro Am, Adrian Flack was the fastest in the class, comfortably beating Sam Shahin and yesterday's class winner Rodney Jane.

Like it did today, the Porsche Paynter Dixon Cup Australia will wrap up the action tomorrow with its third and final race of the round to take place at 6:25pm AEDT.