Andrea Antonelli suffers big crash in practice; George Russell sets pace

Mercedes’ George Russell set an imposing fastest lap in final practice at the Australian Grand Prix after team-mate Kimi Antonelli had a huge accident.

Russell was 0.616 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari in second place, just over 0.1secs quicker than team-mate Charles Leclerc.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in fourth place was a second slower than Russell.

Antonelli crashed on the exit of Turn Two with 15 minutes of the session remaining, applying the power just as he went over a bump on the kerb, and that unsettled the rear.

The Italian spun on the exit of the corner and bounced from the outside barrier into the inside wall, causing heavy damage to his Mercedes. He was unhurt.

That left his rivals just five minutes for one final qualifying simulation run at the end.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was sixth fastest, complaining of an energy deployment problem, just behind new team-mate Isack Hadjar.

World champion Lando Norris was eighth, slowest of the drivers from the top four teams.

There was some improvement from Aston Martin, for whom Fernando Alonso narrowed his gap to the front from five seconds on Friday to 3.6secs on Saturday, although he was down in 18th place.

Team-mate Lance Stroll did not run all session because of an engine problem.