It was a practice session to forget for Sergio Perez in the Red Bull, as everything that could have went wrong for the Mexican did, and on top of that his teammate Max Verstappen put his car top of the timesheet.
Perez was late in getting on track after an issue with the rear of the car had to be fixed by his mechanics. Then when on the Albert Park Circuit, the Red Bull driver made mistakes on at least three flying laps and ended up in the gravel.
“I cannot believe this session,” an exasperated Perez said on team radio.
Then at the end of the session he stopped at the end of the pit lane and had to be wheeled back to the garage by the Red Bull mechanics.
Zhou also in the wall
Perez wasn’t the only driver who had a trip off track.
Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu went too hot into Turn 2 and locked up which sent him onto the grass, before spinning the clipping the wall.
Luckily the car wasn’t damaged and the Chinese driver managed to get going again.
Then as rain started to fall onto the track towards the end of the session, Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari went into the gravel on his way back to the pits.
Impressive Alpine
Elsewhere, the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon put in a pair of impressive times, with the latter finishing the session third.
Should they keep up that speed in qualifying, they will certainly be in the mix along with Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin for slots high up the grid.
Speaking of Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso was the main challenger to Verstappen, and will need to find just over 0.1s to usurp the Dutchman in qualifying.
