Sebastian Vettel suffered a high-speed crash on the exit of Turn 10 before teammate Lance Stroll crashed in the closing stages at Turn 11, ending the session early.
After Vettel missed the first two races of the season due to COVID-19, Vettel’s difficult return in Australia continued as he retired 20 minutes into the session. Vettel lost the rear of his Aston Martin AMR22 as he left the fast left-right sequence, resulting in him running through the gravel and into the wall.
Vettel quickly apologized to the team over the radio before getting out of the car unharmed and then returning to the paddock on the back of a scooter driven by a marshal.
The crash came after Vettel lost the heat on Friday after an engine problem in FP1 knocked him out of the race and prevented him from taking part in FP2. He was also fined €5,000 for illegally riding a scooter on track at the end of FP1 to get back into the paddock.
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Things only got worse for Aston Martin as Stroll lost control of his car at Turn 11, going through the gravel and into the wall with five minutes to go.
Stroll was unhurt but the front left corner of his car was damaged in the impact leaving Aston Martin with work to do before qualifying.
The red flag meant Norris took first place for McLaren in FP3 after most of the front drivers failed to get into a low-fuel run at the end of the session.
Norris set a best lap time of 1m19.117s on the soft compound tyre, finishing a tenth of a second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The British driver was told to slow down under the late red flag as a warning was displayed on his dashboard.
Leclerc spent much of the session battling for top spot alongside Ferrari teammates Carlos Sainz, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who endured a surprisingly competitive session.
Leclerc, Perez and Alonso were covered by just 0.026s in second and fourth, while Sainz was a few tenths behind in fifth.
Daniel Ricciardo finished a decent session for McLaren in sixth, half a second behind his team-mate, while Max Verstappen was seventh for Red Bull.
Verstappen set his best time on the medium compound tire but had a tricky session where he spun early at Turn 13 before almost losing the rear of his car when he went through Turn 1 on a late boost lap. “I don’t understand why I’m shooting,” Verstappen said over the radio. “It’s really hard to feel the balance right now.”
Lewis Hamilton also fought for Mercedes, finishing eighth after narrowly dodging the wall at Turn 11 early in the session. Former teammate Valtteri Bottas was ninth for Alfa Romeo ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who completed the top 10 for AlphaTauri.
George Russell and Pierre Gasly finished 11th and 12th ahead of Esteban Ocon, who was over eight tenths off Alonso’s time in the sister Alpine. Mick Schumacher finished 14th for Haas ahead of Williams’ rookie Guanyu Zhou and Alex Albon.
Kevin Magnussen finished FP3 in 17th after struggling through Friday’s night sickness while Nicholas Latifi sat ahead of the two Aston Martins in 18th.
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