Formula 1 returned to Australia's Albert Park Circuit for the third Grand Prix of the 2023 season after holding the first two Grand Prix's in the Middle East. Formula 1 raced at the circuit in 2022 but the 2019 and 2020 Grand Prix's were canceled due to COVID.

The Albert Park street circuit was resurfaced in 2022 with some metallic elements included in the aggregate, improving the grip from the tyres. The asphalt is smoother than other tracks on the championship, with peak grip only achieved after several sessions of on-track running.

It is a true home race for Oscar Piastri. The young McLaren driver was born in Melbourne, not far from Albert Park. Piastri was consistently fast in the wet FP2 conditions to the delight of the home town crowd.

"It was great to be out on track here in Melbourne and see all the fans. It was nice to have a bit of wet weather in FP2 as it was the first time running on the Intermediate tyres for me, so it was some really useful learning," said Piastri.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was quickest in a rain affected FP2 session. Points leader and 2021 and 2022 World Champion Red Bull's Max Verstappen was quickest in the earlier FP1 session.

"It was a good Friday for us and nice to be back in Australia. In FP1 we concentrated on some test items and ran through our programme smoothly," said Alonso. "The afternoon was obviously impacted by the rain, so there is still some work to do tomorrow. We need to learn more about the tyres and the long run pace of the car because there was not much time for that today."

"The conditions weren't great out there today, we had low grip and the tarmac seemed to be slippery. It was quite tough to switch the tyres on, so that was difficult when you want to push immediately. There were also quite a few interruptions with the red flags, so we never really got into a rhythm," said Verstappen, alluding to a FP1 10-minute red flag caused by the failure of F1's GPS system.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was four-tenths behind Verstappen in the early session.

This morning was good, but this afternoon wasn't as good. We made some changes after FP1 that didn't quite work and we will look to revert this evening," said Hamilton, adding, "I think we've got similar pace to the last race in Saudi Arabia."

Verstappen's Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, was third quickest in FP1.

"We made some good changes from FP1 that I could feel in sector 1 and sector 2 but I couldn't get a full lap in the afternoon with the traffic in sector 3," said the Mexican native who was 7th quickest in FP2.

Pirelli brought their C2, C3 and C4 compounds to Melbourne this weekend.

Pos	Driver		Team		Tyre	Time		Gap

1	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:18.887	149.664 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:19.332	0.445
3	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:19.502	0.615
4	Russell		Mercedes	1:19.672	0.785
5	Sainz		Ferrari		1:19.695	0.808
6	Ocon		Alpine		1:19.725	0.838
7	Perez		Red Bull	1:20.083	1.196
8	Norris		McLaren		1:20.176	1.289
9	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:20.194	1.307
10	Gasly		Alpine		1:20.206	1.319
11	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:20.220	1.333
12	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:20.312	1.425
13	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:20.323	1.436
14	Piastri		McLaren		1:20.380	1.493
15	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:20.470	1.583
16	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:20.579	1.692
17	de Vries	AlphaTauri	1:20.600	1.713
18	Albon		Williams	1:21.182	2.295
19	Magnussen	Haas		1:21.266	2.379
20	Sargeant	Williams	No Time

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:18.790	149.848 mph
2	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:19.223	0.433
3	Perez		Red Bull	1:19.293	0.503
4	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:19.317	0.527
5	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:19.378	0.588
6	Sainz		Ferrari		1:19.505	0.715
7	Norris		McLaren		1:19.536	0.746
8	Gasly		Alpine		1:19.646	0.856
9	Russell		Mercedes	1:19.699	0.909
10	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:19.766	0.976
11	Albon		Williams	1:19.766	0.976
12	Piastri		McLaren		1:19.777	0.987
13	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:19.806	1.016
14	de Vries	AlphaTauri	1:19.933	1.143
15	Sargeant	Williams	1:20.074	1.284
16	Ocon		Alpine		1:20.175	1.385
17	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:20.399	1.609
18	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:20.419	1.629
19	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:20.569	1.779
20	Magnussen	Haas		1:21.147	2.357

(images provided by Aston Martin F1 Media & Alpine F1 Media)