PRACTICE: Hauger heads the field in Melbourne

Dennis Hauger ended Practice fastest of all for MP Motorsport, recording a 1:29.654 to hit the ground running in Melbourne. Isack Hadjar followed in P2, the Campos Racing driver just 0.001s down on the fastest laptime, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli led the PREMA Racing charge in third.

Not long after the green light, Amaury Cordeel brought out an early Red Flag after running deep at Turn 1 and becoming beached in the gravel trap.

With the Hitech Pulse-Eight car clear, the top spot changed hands multiple times over, but Victor Martins led the way for ART Grand Prix after he set a 1:32.359, 0.074s clear of teammate Zak O’Sullivan.

That was swiftly beaten by Gabriel Bortoleto as he moved up to P1 on a 1:31.043. Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney went second-quickest until Antonelli closed the gap to the Brazilian to just 0.130s.

The track continued to improve rapidly as Bortoleto improved on his next lap to lower the time to beat to a 1:30.373. Hauger bettered that by 0.070s shortly afterwards, while Martins went third overall a further 0.008s further back from the Norwegian.

The MP driver then went to the top himself, a 1:29.654 leaving him 0.4s quicker than Antonelli, who moved up to second with over 15 minutes to go in Practice.

Into the final 10 minutes and Paul Aron suffered a similar spin at Turn 1 as his teammate but was able to recover to the circuit and continue on his way.

There were few improvements in the latter stages of the session, though Hadjar was able to move himself up to second for Campos, just 0.001s off the top spot.

The second Red Flag of the session came with three minutes left in Practice as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagómez spun and came to a stop at Turn 2, bringing an early end to the session.

It left Hauger fastest of all but only just ahead of Hadjar in P2. Antonelli was third but had been improving just prior to the session-ending Red Flag. Maloney moved himself up to fourth late on, while Trident’s Richard Verschoor rounded out the top five.

Qualifying is set to get underway at 17:30 local time around Albert Park.