Practice-
Dennis Hauger ended practice fastest of all for MP Motorsport, recording a 1:29.654 to hit the ground running in Melbourne. Isack Hadjar followed in P2, the Campos driver just 0.001s down on the fastest laptime while Andrea Kimi Antonelli led the PREMA Racing charge in third.
Not long after the green light, Amaury Cordeel brought out an early Red Flag after running deep at Turn 1 and becoming beached in the gravel trap.
Once the Hitech Pulse-Eight car was clear, the top spot changed hands multiple times, but Victor Martin led the way for ART Grand Prix after he set a 1:32.359, 0.074s clear of teammate Zak O’Sullivan.
That was swiftly beaten by Gabriel Bortoleto as he moved up to P1 on a 1:31.043. Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney went second-quickest until Antonelli closed the gap to the Brazilian to just 0.130s.
The track continued to improve rapidly as Bortoleto improved on his next lap to lower the time to beat to a 1:30.373.
Hauger bettered that by 0.070s shortly afterwards, while Martins went third overall a further 0.008s further back from the Norwegian.
The MP driver then went to the top himself, a 1:29.654 leaving him 0.4s quicker than Antonelli, who moved up to second with over 15 minutes to go.
Paul Aron suffered a similar spin at Turn 1 as his teammate but was able to recover to the circuit and continue on his way.
There was a few more improvements in the latter stages of the session, though Hadjar was able to move himself up to second.
The second red flag of the session came with three minutes remaining, as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez spun and came to a stop at Turn 2 which brought an early end to the session.
Qualifying-
Dennis Hauger made it a Friday sweep for MP Motorsport, taking pole position in Melbourne after topping Practice timesheets.
The Norwegian beat PREMA Racing’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli to the top spot with his final flying lap to record a 1:28.694. Richard Verschoor made a late improvement to end up third overall.
Before any laps were on the board, the red flags were waved after ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins came to a half at Turn 7 after a spin on corner exit. He managed to avoid the barriers, but his session was over and his car was recovered.
Once action resumed, Kush Maini set the initial benchmark with a 1:30.359.
Hitech Pulse Eight’s Paul Aron then took over P1 with a 1:29,984 while Hauger was just 0.031s down on that effort in second.
With 14 minutes left, cars returned to the pits for fresh supersoft tyres heading into the final runs of the session
Once back on track, Maloney took to the top spot with a 1:29.374 just prior to the second red flag of the session. Jak Crawford lost his DAMS Lucas Oil car and hit the barriers at Turn 12.
Qualifying got back underway with 4:14 left on the clock and the top four were separated by less than a tenth of a second.
Bortoleto was set to make an improvement but ran off the road at Turn 12.
The full top 10 are- Pole: Hauger, P2: Antonelli, P3: Verschoor, P4: Maini, P5: Maloney, P6: Aron, P7: Marti, P8: Hadjar, P9: Bortoleto and P10: Stanek.
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