Alonso, stuck with Verstappen before Australian classification

Just over a tenth. Max Verstappen led the third free practice of Australian GP of F1 2023 and he is the favorite to take the pole position this Saturday. But other than jeddahwhere the red bull They were more than half a second before qualifying, out of reach, this time Max had it easier, or things were tighter, and Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin AMR23 in second position in just 0 “162 of the time set of the Dutchman.

He Aston Martin works well for the third weekend in a row and Fernando Alonso he should opt for his third podium in three races. Before, for this, they must ensure a good position on the starting grid this Sunday with a good classification, waiting to see the leap that their rivals can make at the front when they take all the power of their engines for a walk .

So far, in FP3, Alpine showed a great jump and confirmed that they work very well on this circuit, as expected after the speed shown by the French in last year’s round. Esteban Ocon was third at 0″373 behind Max and Pierre Gasly was 5th at 0″529. And between the two Alpines, the first Mercedes, that of George Russell, still more in tune than his teammate Lewis Hamilton, lost in 8th position at 0″573.

For his part, ‘Checo’ Pérez, who should also aim for pole position this Saturday, had a session with several failures in his car and finished in sixth place, half a second behind the time set by his teammate on the team and couldn’t star in a clean session.

Carlos Sainz finished in seventh position, at 0″562, while his teammate Charles Leclerc was 13th at 1″126. The sensations were better than in Jeddah and the team focused on free practice in continuing to study their car to understand its behavior and take small steps forward. In qualifying, those in red should improve a lot. They have a fast car one lap away and they must try to maximize their chances in a good qualifier.