Friday, 6 March 2026:
- Free Practice 1: P12, 1:22.323, 30 laps
- Free Practice 2: P17, 1:22.253, 10 laps

• Carlos Sainz started his journey in the Australian GP with two practice sessions where the priority was to understand the best way to handle the electric energy around the Albert Park Circuit.
• The Williams race driver worked with the Soft and the Hard compounds in the first session, but in the second one he could only complete 10 laps due to a technical issue that forced him to spend the rest of the practice in the pits.
• The Spaniard knows which areas should be improved for tomorrow. He will still be able to capitalize on the third practice session to work on the set-up of his car before heading to Qualifying.

QUOTES:
“It’s been a challenging first day here in Australia. In FP1 we tried to understand the best way to deploy and harvest the energy around this track and unfortunately in FP2 we had an issue that prevented me from trying the softest compound and doing some consecutive running, which is never ideal and even more so during the first race week of a new regulation. There are plenty of areas to analyse and improve for tomorrow".

COMING UP:
Saturday, 7 March 2026:
- Free Practice 3: 12:30 local time (02:30 CET)
- Qualifying: 16:00 local time (06:00 CET)