REPORT | Norris on top after FP3!

McLaren's Lando Norris leads the final practice session in Australia, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc one-tenth behind, followed by Red Bull's Sergio Perez, with a tenth-and-a-half. Aston Martin will be working hard to repair both their cars for their qualifying in two hours time.

For the first fifteen minutes, the drivers seemed to be going through more runs for tyre understanding, with Russell weaving heavily to get temperature into his softs. Some cars had to reduce their running as teams made adjustments to their rear wing, following the decision to remove the DRS zone between turns eight to 11.

Ferrari seemed to have dialled out their porpoising through the corners, allowing them to gain grip through turns. As a result however, the porpoising seems to have increased on the straights instead. Overall, an enviable result from other teams as drivers want that extra grip (and not the uncertainty) through the corners.

Sergio Perez ran very close to the wall on exit at one point, surely causing palpitations in the Red Bull garage. Max Verstappen later suffered a slow speed spin through turn 15, as he seemed to lose rear grip. George Russell was another to have another braking issue into turn 3, running wide and into the gravel.

Lewis Hamilton had a brief moment, running wide, through the gravel and tapping the wall on turn 13. Not long afterwards (with 30 minutes left in the session), Sebastian Vettel suffered a heavy accident on the exit of turn 12, bringing out the red flag 21 minutes into the session. Teammate Lance Stroll suffered an accident too, this time into turn 13. With only 4 minutes to spare, the red flag brought about the end of the session. Aston Martin will be working hard to prepare their cars for this afternoon’s qualifying session.

Join us in two hours for the liveblog coverage of qualifying at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix!