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Mercedes operator Kimi Antonelli wrecked his car successful a dense clang portion teammate George Russell topped the timesheets successful the last escaped signifier league before qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix connected Saturday (March 7, 2026).
Antonelli locked up astatine crook 2 astatine Albert Park and skidded hard into a obstruction precocious successful the session, leaving a beforehand instrumentality bouncing distant from the clang and squad boss Toto Wolff wincing successful the squad garage.
The 19-year-old Italian said "I'm OK" implicit the squad vigor as a reddish emblem halted the session.
The league resumed for the past fewer minutes, allowing Russell to station the fastest thigh of 1 minute, 19.053 seconds, 0.616 seconds up of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and third-placed Charles Leclerc.
Russell's clip improved upon McLaren driver Oscar Piastri's 1:19.729 successful the 2nd escaped signifier connected Friday.
Home racer Piastri posted the 4th quickest lap, a afloat 2nd down Russell.
The league had already been delayed 20 minutes owed to a clang successful the preceding Formula 3 sprint contention and was halted for 8 minutes midway done owed to different reddish emblem erstwhile Carlos Sainz's Williams car stopped astatine the entranceway to the pit lane.
Teams utilized the last hr of signifier to fine-tune setups and stitchery information up of the season's archetypal qualifying league nether Formula One's sweeping caller powerfulness portion regulations.
Drivers person been grappling with the sport’s caller hybrid engines, which spot acold greater accent connected electrical vigor deployment and regeneration than successful the erstwhile era.
Four-times satellite champion Max Verstappen was sixth quickest, 1 down his Red Bull teammate Izack Hadjar.
Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, the youngest British operator to commencement a Formula One season, was 11th.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso managed 20 laps for the troubled F1 outfit, whose drivers are connected constricted run-times owed to the menace of nervus harm from vibrations successful the car.
His teammate Lance Stroll did not marque it retired of the garage.
Alonso was 18th quickest, up of caller squad Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.
