LEWIS HAMILTON FINISHED only 13th in second practice for the Australian Grand Prix as championship leader Charles Leclerc set the fastest time.
A fortnight on from the controversial Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Formula One is back at Melbourne’s Albert Park for the first time since the 2020 race was cancelled because of the pandemic.
And Hamilton, who finished a lowly 10th in Jeddah, was again off the pace in his under-performing Mercedes.
The seven-time world champion demanded more power and greater grip after his disappointing showing at the previous round.
POV: You're @PierreGASLY driving around the incredible @ausgrandprix circuit! 🤩#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/oLS7GBVWhn
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 8, 2022
But the Silver Arrows arrived in Australia without any major upgrades as they continue to battle the new regulations.
Hamilton finished a distant 1.5 seconds behind Leclerc, with world champion Max Verstappen second, 0.245 sec adrift, and Carlos Sainz third in the other Ferrari.
Neither Mercedes drivers made it into the top 10 on Friday afternoon after Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell finished 11th, 1.2 sec back.
Fernando Alonso, who made his debut here 21 years ago, was fourth for Alpine, one spot ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Hamilton finished second to former team-mate Valterri Bottas in the last race staged here back in 2019.
But the circuit has undergone a number of changes since in order to spice up what can be a largely uneventful race.
The track has been resurfaced and widened at Turns 1, 6 and the penultimate corner, while the chicane has been removed at Turns 9 and 10 to provide the drivers with a high-speed drag down to Turn 11; delivering greater overtaking opportunities.
Charles Leclerc fastest in FP2! 👊#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/db3RxThndz
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 8, 2022
Sebastian Vettel was sidelined for the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia after testing positive for Covid-19.
The four-time world champion is back in action this weekend, but his first outing ended prematurely following an engine failure.
Vettel came to a halt with smoke billowing out of his Aston Martin. He rode a moped back to this pits, waving to the crowd – an incident which is being investigated by the stewards. He then failed to make it out for the concluding action of the day after his team could not change his faulty power unit in time.
Vettel’s team-mate Lance Stroll finished 14th on a day which is unlikely to improve the mood in the Aston Martin camp following their lacklustre start to the new season. Only they and Williams are without a point so far.
British driver Lando Norris was eighth for McLaren, two places ahead of team-mate and home favourite Daniel Ricciardo.
Quality player, very surprised he was dropped.
I’d be very surprised if he was dropped in the first place as he needed match time. He’s better than Jager in all facets that I’ve seen, scrum, maul and as we’ve all seen, in the lose. Jager, just not seeing it with him especially scrum. Am I missing something???
@Noel Lynn: Bealham is certainly well ahead of Jager and all other TH (Furlong apart) in Ireland, but I think Jager is doing a better job than you’re giving credit for. He’s been very good at scrum time for munster, especially when he came up against Porter, and was solid against Wales. His ruck defense was excellent both clearing and counter rucking and his goal line defense was superb. His lineout work wasn’t up to scratch IMO and he still needs to improve his S&C but he’s certainly got a high ceiling and a great addition to our TH stock.
@Noel Lynn: Short answer – yes
Easily the best TH after Furlong, who seems to have recovered some of his previous form. Great to have several options here between Furlong, Bealham, O’Toole and Jager. The order is not important as they are all playing well at the moment.
Literally no one else is suprised.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m surprised, arguably pushing Furlong for a starting spot
Bealham is a quality player but I think it’s getting a bit clearer that farrell and his coaches are huge fans of jager. To go from the ‘training squad’ to the verge of the 1st choice 23 over a couple of weeks is pretty phenomenonal
@munsterman: jager has plenty to work on to over take Bealham. He may not have over taken TO’T yet, so 1 step at a time.
@Patrick O’Sullivan: well I’ve never seen farrell move so quickly to promote a player in a meaningful match. Even players like Joe Mccarthy and crowley had to put in their time in camp for a year or so. There’s every chance that bealham will be back-up th v England but you wouldn’t bet on it
@munsterman: There’s every chance that Bealham will start and Jager on the bench if Furlong injured.
@Con Cussed: yea that’d be the most likely scenario I’d imagine. It’s quite tough on otoole who’s been very good for Ireland too
@munsterman: Agreed. It just means the pressure is now on all four to keep the momentum up. It’s a tough position and injuries abound so can see them all getting a chance in the future.
This could mean Furlong has an injury concern… I hope not!
Has anyone authoritative said that Bealham was dropped? As far as I recall the mood music before the Welsh game was that Bealham had proved himself across a number of matches to be no great step down from Furlong; and that Farrell was taking advantage of a game we were almost certain to win to have a look at Jäger off the bench.
Depressing stuff
@Kevin Ryan: when have we ever seen farrell use a competitive game to just have a look at a player? The only time he ever changes up his side much is v the most tier2 of tier2 nations in Nov or else gets A games set up
@munsterman: Giving a guy a debut as a bench prop is not really changing the side much, though. And if he didn’t pick this game, he’d have to wait until the Autumn, assuming SA too strong. Anyways, we’ll see what Farrell does with the selection for the England game.
The story around Bealham is a bit of a head scratcher. Why was he dropped? Some say he needed time off as a new dad. Personally I believe the coaches think Jager is a better prop. When your coach uses faint praise to describe your last performance then you are in trouble. I think Farrell described Bealham’s last outing as “decent enough”. In all these scenarios the public never gets a true picture until someone writes a book.
@Tom Reilly: I seem to have missed him saying that about Bealham – was that in a press conference? I checked the post Italy match press conference again to refresh my memory, and Faz was effusive in his praise of the set piece, calling it excellent and top notch, so I’m surprised he would then be naming Finlay as not being a top performer. A lot of media said that Finlay was doing as much as he could possibly do to challenge Furlong for the starting berth on the back of his performance against Italy, so I don’t think I’m the only one who thought he performed excellent in that match.
@Tom Reilly: ah, I heard it now – it was from the pre-Wales match conference. To be honest, the way I hear it, it seemed more so saying that Oli deserved a chance in spite of Bealham having a decent performance. TBH, I think he couldn’t say “Wales’ scrum is poor so this is the best chance to give Oli a tryout in the six nations window”, so has to justify it on the basis of competition for places. If he said Finlay was excellent, then he would effectively be needing to say that Oli is even better, which would be a huge amount of pressure to put on a debutant. So, he kind of has to nearly qualify Bealham’s performance so as not to put down Wales.
@JoeVlogs: As I said earlier it is hard to know what exactly is going on. I think most people think Bealham did not deserve to be dropped from a playing point of view. Maybe something else is going on.
The euphemism that Alex Ferguson developed to replace “dropped” was “rotated.” The image that most of us have of a “dropped” player is of someone so bad in the last match that they had to be replaced. Sometimes it is about building squad depth, other times you were the Lions captain last week and this week not in the 23 – an utterly unexplainable event.
I suspect that Furlong has twinged his hamstring. If Furlong is out, Bealham absolutely starts ahead of Jager – and we all know that.
@PatN: I meant calf not hamstring
Bealham should be pushing Furlong for a starting position not getting dropped
When was the last v good game from Furlong?
@Derek Casserly: Last week!
There is much debate about the word “dropped” concerning Bealham. Was he or wasn’t he dropped. IMO if a player is available for selection, has been selected everytime he is available and then he is not selected, then he is indeed deemed “dropped”.
Let’s stop using the word “dropped”. To play at elite level you need a squad of 35 players and the ability to get game time into all of them. ( let’s not repeat RWC errors from the past). Rotatated is a much better word.