The 2026 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix continues on Saturday, with the first qualifying session of the year taking place.
The new campaign began on Friday with two hours of practice, with McLaren's Oscar Piastri delighting the home crowd with the fastest time of the day.
He led the Mercedes duo of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, who remain for many on the grid as the favourites for victory at the start of the new season.
However, it wasn't a smooth Friday for Mercedes, who admitted to power unit issues during the first practice session. Ferrari and Red Bull also look like they will be in the mix with McLaren and Mercedes in the battle for pole.
Aston Martin's nightmare start to the year continued on Friday, as battery problems severely limited its running. Team boss Adrian Newey admitted on Friday morning that Aston is down to just two batteries - one for each car - and without any spares available from Honda to be shipped over.
Its participation across Saturday's action, and indeed into the race on Sunday, remains uncertain.
Saturday's action kicks off with the final hour of free practice, with a chaotic qualifying expected amid concerns about the amount of energy harvesting teams will need to be doing due to the battery demands placed on the new power units at Albert Park.
Qualifying will see a slightly tweaked format for 2026, owing to the addition of an 11th team in the form of Cadillac bringing the total number of cars on track up to 22.
As such, six drivers will now be eliminated from Q1 and six from Q2, with the 10 fastest drivers progressing to Q3 to battle for the first pole position of the new season.
2026 F1 Australian Grand Prix Saturday schedule
FP3 - 1:30-2:30 GMT
Qualifying - 5:00-6:00 GMT
Some furious work going on at Turn 2 to clear the track in time for a restart before the clock runs down - 7mins to go.
If that is that, then we're still not much clearer on who will be in charge come qualifying as some key players were yet to fully unleash their potential, including Mercedes (who were in the process at the time) and Red Bull
Marshals are now in a race to clear the car with just 10mins of the session to go.
However, there is a lot of debris strewn across the track.
That was a true moment of two tales for Mercedes, the red flag spoiling Russell's fast lap in what looked like being the first true sign of what the car is capable of
A hefty shunt for Antonelli, who uses just a little too much of the green on the inside before getting unsettled on the concrete join that separates the run off from the asphalt.
It spits him into a spin and into the outside barrier, before coming to rest again on the inside, minus much of the Mercedes' back end
Antonelli has dropped his Mercedes on the exit of Turn 2 and ripped off a few corners from his car.
The session has been stopped, Antonelli is out of the car
Speaking of new teams, Audi has been going about its debut race weekend in a quietly impressive way.
The car looks slick, the engine is powerful and that livery looks much better in action than it does in photos. Better still, considering it's an all-new engine from a manufacturer that has never raced in F1 before, it has been reliable.
With just over 10mins of the session to go, both Hulkenberg and Bortoleto sit proudly in the top ten
How's Cadillac doing? Well, 19th and 20th, which is de facto bottom of the pile with Sainz and Stroll out of action.
Perez and Bottas are about four seconds off the pace, which is around where they have been through pre-season testing. Expectations for the American team are modest, it has had a relatively short lead in time to its first season and it's a team that has been built from scratch.
Still, the car has been moderately solid - some gremlins notwithstanding. A double finish will be a major success for the team on its maiden weekend
Leclerc is back on top with a 1m 19.827s lap, just shy of the best time on Friday.
Williams' day goes from bad to worse as now Alex Albon stops on track out of T4 unable to find a gear.
A bit of a Ctrl+Alt+Del gets the Williams going again for a slow return to the pit lane - it has been a chastening start to the year for the British team considering the gains it made last year
Oscar Piastri hits the top of the timesheets, displacing Hamilton and Leclerc
20 of the 22 drivers have set a time now, including Valtteri Bottas in the brand-new Cadillac, which is now out after some quick fixes at the start of the session.
Just Sainz - who stopped on track with technical issues - and Stroll, who hasn't emerged from the pits, are yet to get on the board
Incidentally, Antonelli goes fastest... well, he was, Leclerc usurps him with a 1m 20.271s
A good example for the trick of the mind that will be F1 2026 - Antonelli makes rapid gains as he ends a lap on Hamilton, who is just starting his.
The rapid closing down by Antonelli as Hamilton waits patiently to go full beans in the Ferrari despite having started his lap creates a bit of confusion as to whether he should move over for the Italian, despite the Ferrari being the one at start of a time attack
We're back underway again and it's a very busy pit lane this time as drivers pile out to make up for the loss of about ten minutes
The clock keeps on running as we're pressed for time as it is - just under 45mins to go
Now seems a good time to check the lap times, not that we're seeing anything terribly definitive right now.
1 - Hamilton
2- Hulkenberg
3- Bortoleto
4- Gasly
5- Colapinto
The red flag has been thrown after all that.
Yellow flags upgraded to VSC.
Sainz has turned it off and back on again but no luck. The cavalry has arrived and Sainz hauls himself out of the cockpit. Session will stay neutral until the car is wheeled to safety
Bad start to the day for Williams as Carlos Sainz loses power ahead of the final corner and comes to an abrupt halt right at the entrance of the pit lane.
Side note, and one for the F1 historians among you, does anyone else see the 1994 Tyrrell in that livery? No...? Just me then
World Champ Lando Norris is out on the soft tyres but after being caught out by a slowing Alpine on the home straight and running wide on the exit of Turn 1, he's already backed out of his lap
While we're on the subject of Alpine, the French team has Mercedes power for the first time this weekend, a move they hope will haul them well clear of the bottom spot they spent 2025 in.
Both Audis, Hamilton, Perez and - big trumpet - Alonso is also out there
After a 20min delay, we are finally green and the first driver to get Saturday F1 action underway at Albert Park is... Franco Colapinto
"One minute before the start of a session."
EDIT: Five minutes, the start time is pushed back to 12.50 (01.50 UK)
Aston Martin Watch - Lance Stroll's car is in rather a lot of pieces just one minute before the start of a session.
The Canadian has barely completed any laps and it isn't looking terribly promising he'll get many more in this session
Conditions are sunny but cloudy.
That sun is pleasantly warm, but some those clouds look a bit moody.
Rain isn't expected but I've lost count how many times I've posted that, only for a shower to promptly form. Call me Michael Fish.
While the lion's share of the attention has been on the new regulations, the new teams and, well, Aston Martin, it's easy to forget that there is a lot of pressure riding on the shoulders of both McLaren drivers this weekend.
Lando Norris begins his first weekend as reigning F1 champion but does so with quite a low profile as question marks over how these new regulations will play out persist.
Meanwhile, Oscar Piastri is, of course, on local soil and bidding to end Australia's wait for a home-grown winner.
The last time an Aussie won at home was Alan Jones in 1980... but it wasn't an official F1 World Championship race.
Race control confirms FP3 will get underway at 12.45 local (01.45 UK), or 15mins late, to allow more time to fix the barriers at Turn 5 following a shunt in the preceding F3 Sprint