Ferrari's Leclerc puts teammate Hamilton in the shade in Australian GP practice

Melbourne: Charles Leclerc left new Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton trailing in his wake in free practice at the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix on Friday as defending champion Max Verstappen struggled with the Red Bull car.

Third quickest in the first practice session (FP1), Leclerc topped the timesheet in the second (FP2) at Albert Park with a lap of one minute, 16.439 seconds on soft tyres, 0.124 better than McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

Piastri's teammate Lando Norris ran third in FP2 while seven-times world champion Hamilton was fifth, an improvement on his 12th ranking in the first session (FP1), but more than four-tenths of a second slower than Leclerc.

The soft tyre times could have little relevance for Sunday's race if the forecast for rain proves accurate.

The Red Bull car's performance was nonetheless a concern for Verstappen as he struggled with his setup.

He was fifth in FP1 and unable to post a fast lap on soft tyres in FP2, finishing seventh quickest on the medium set.

"Somehow the grip was not coming alive and just struggling on all four tyres, really, in sector one and the last sector," Verstappen told Sky.

"The problem is that it’s not really like I have major balance problems, so I think it will be a bit hard to fix."

His new teammate Liam Lawson also struggled for control, 17th in the second session, one lower than FP1.

Mercedes, too, have ground to make up, with George Russell seventh and 10th respectively in the sessions and 18-year-old teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli 14th and 16th.

Russell reported trouble with his car in FP1, complaining of understeer at high speed and excessive heat.

He spun off track with a minute left in the session, narrowly avoiding a front-on collision with a wall after setting the seventh-quickest lap.

The teams switched to harder compounds and higher fuel loads for the last 20 minutes of FP2.

Norris, the bookmakers' early favourite to win the drivers' title, set the pace in the long-run setup, marginally ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, with Hamilton lagging the trio.

Norris said he was not confident with his car in low fuel.

"High fuel, I felt good. Just low fuel was still similar to Bahrain (testing), too many inconsistencies, too many problems, so a bit of a struggle," he said.

Piastri was happier with the day's work, saying his pace was "pretty solid".

"Still a few things to iron out to make the car feel a bit nicer," he said.

Qualifying will take place in scorching heat on Saturday before rain could make Sunday's race a lottery.

Less than a second separated the 14 fastest drivers in FP2 and the midfield battle appears tight.

The rebadged Racing Bulls team posted encouraging times in FP2, with Yuki Tsunoda, who missed out on a seat at Red Bull to New Zealander Lawson, fourth fastest.

His teammate Isack Hadjar was sixth, three better than in FP1.

The young Algerian-Frenchman had the best day out of the six rookies starting an F1 season for the first time.

Among them, Briton Oliver Bearman had to miss FP2 after damaging his Haas in a heavy shunt that followed a slide through gravel when exiting turn 10 in FP1.

With his right rear wheel dislodged and bouncing down the track, the unharmed 19-year-old spun across the track and apologised to his team after coming to a halt.

It was the second of two red flags to halt FP1, with stewards reporting debris from an unnamed car in the first.

Alpine's embattled rookie Jack Doohan and Lawson needed repairs to the floors of their cars after veering off track in FP1.