McLaren’s Lando Norris was fastest in FP3 of F1 Australian GP with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc second from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Ahead of the start of the FP3 of F1 Australian GP, the FIA Race Director shared the information that the weekend will only have three DRS zones going forward due to safety reasons. This was confirmed after reservations from the drivers.

While the detection zone for the original third and fourth zones (now second and third) will remain the same, the detection zone for the first will be moved to before Turn 9. “For safety reasons, DRS Zones will be reduced to 3 for the remainder of the event.

“DRS detection 1 will be moved to before Turn 9, DRS activation 1 will be after Turn 10, DRS detection 2 will remain unchanged, with the following activation zones will be renumbered accordingly,” stated the note.

That late change left Aston Martin with less time adjust the set-up which delayed Lance Stroll. There was further drama for the team after a crash for Sebastian Vettel at Turn 10. It resulted in a red flag and further time loss for the German.

It only went worse for Aston Martin after a late crash for Stroll in the same corner resulting in another red flag, with the session ending with five minutes remaining on the clock. There were offs for both Mercedes drivers in that corner.

Also, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz had to take an evasive action against Williams’ Nicholas Latifi there too. It was quite the up and down session for multiple drivers with the order different to FP1 and FP2, as McLaren’s Norris (1m19.117s) set the pace in FP3 of F1 Australian GP.

There was a caution message for him towards the end of the session just before the red flag was waved. Nevertheless, he led Ferrari’s Leclerc (1m19.249s) and Red Bull’s Perez (1m19.265s) in the Top 3, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (1m19.275s) slotting in fourth.

Ferrari’s Sainz (1m19.419s) was fifth from McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m19.693s), with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (1m19.809s) seventh after he had to abort twice for his fast lap. He also had a grass moment, as he eventually couldn’t set a time on the soft tyres.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m19.896s) was eighth from Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas (1m20.008s) with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m20.071s) rounding the Top 10. Mercedes’ George Russell ended up 11th from AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon found himself in 13th with Haas’ Mick Schumacher 14th from Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou, Williams’ Alexander Albon and the other Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Williams’ Latifi slotted in 18th from Aston Martin’s Stroll, as Vettel had no time.

In another FIA Race Director note, the information came through about safety car re-start where the tactics used by Verstappen won’t be allowed. The Dutchman used to hustle the leader by coming alongside him, but it won’t be allowed anymore.

“(…) In order to avoid the likelihood of accidents before the safety car returns to the pits, from the point at which the lights on the car are turned out drivers must proceed at a pace which involves no erratic acceleration or braking nor any manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers or impede the restart.(…),” stated the note.

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Here’s what was said on Friday of F1 Australian GP

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