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We did have some ducks on the track during one of the Supercars support races yesterday, fortunately none of them seemed to be hurt, hopefully it wasn’t a repeat of that.

The FIA say the red flag was for debris, noting “it seems it came from a car”, so perhaps there was something besides the gravel which the cameras did not pick up on.

All 20 cars have set times so far and Sauber are clearly at the bottom of the pecking order as it stands. The session is about to restart.

The session has been red-flagged. There’s a build-up of gravel at turn six where Jack Doohan, Max Verstappen and others have run wide.

Top times so far:
1. Charles Leclerc: 1’17.880
2. George Russell: 1’18.030
3. Isack Hadjar: 1’18.218
4. Lando Norris: 1’18.253
5. Max Verstappen: 1’18.325

Melburnian Oscar Piastri has just fallen out of the top 10 as he rejoins the track now in his McLaren.

Another of the new names appears near the top of the times – Isack Hadjar goes third for the team now officially known as Racing Bulls, which went by the initials RB last year.

Newcomer Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who is running the camber-exaggerating onboard camera in this session, is a second off the pace so far in 13th.

We’re a quarter of an hour in and Leclerc still leads the way. He’s in the pits at the moment, while George Russell pops up into second place, 0.15 seconds off the Ferrari.

Another improvement from Leclerc brings the top time down to a 1’17.880 so we’re already well under last year’s best time from this session. That six-tenths of a second off the best time from second practice.

Charles Leclerc now takes over at the top with a 1’18.317, followed by the McLaren pair. Only Nico Hulkenberg and Alexander Albon are yet to set times.

Liam Lawson glanced the wall with the right-hand side of his car on the way into turn nine.

Max Verstappen puts up a 1’19.771 to lead the early running, which is 1.2 seconds off the best time seen in this session last year, set by Norris.

Lando Norris immediately touches the grass at turn five as he tries to pass a car ahead. No harm done and he makes his way past.

The cars head out for the first time.

Melbourne is the scene of the season-opener for the first time since 2019 – it was supposed to open the 2020 championship before the Covid-19 pandemic changed that.

It’s finally time to get a glimpse of the real pecking order as all 20 cars prepare to take to the track together for the first time this year.

The first practice session for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix is coming up next.

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