With moveable aerodynamics here to stay, each circuit will now display 'straight mode zones' on its map, in place of the previous DRS detection points, to indicate when the active wings come into play.

At Albert Park, four DRS zones now become five straight mode zones, with the overtake mode activation and detection points marked at the end of the lap at Turns 13 and 14.

We're still waiting on Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso Cadillac's Sergio Perez and Red Bull's Max Verstappen to set a lap time in this second practice session. Verstappen is just heading out now on the medium compound.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne

The need to recover energy to a much greater extent than last year, and the limited ways of doing that, have led to the driving challenge changing significantly.

In many corners, particularly slow-speed ones, drivers will be using higher gears than would be optimum if cornering speed were the only concern.

That's to keep the turbo spinning so the engines can be run against the MGU-K to charge the battery.

But that's just one way of recovering energy. The others are:

• During braking
• Lift and coast - lifting off the throttle before the braking point for the corner, and coasting for a while, before braking at a later point
• Harvesting while on full throttle. The F1 jargon for this is 'super-clip', a phrase that hopefully, for the sake of casual fans, will be used as little as possible. It means that while the driver is flat-out on the straight, the engine is used to charge the battery through the electric motor rather than deploying energy to the wheels

Teams and drivers are continuing to gather as much information as possible about these new 2026 machines, with some catching on quicker than others as to when to deploy energy and when to harvest it.

George Russell has gone back to the top of the timesheets on his first flyer on the soft tyre and the Briton is joined by team-mate Kimi Antonelli. There is 0.178 seconds between the Mercedes pair, who are followed by the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton in third and Oscar Piastri's McLaren in fourth.

Better from McLaren as Oscar Piastri bumps dowm Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes into second place with a new top time of 1:20.638 on the same hard compound.

Fernando Alonso has made it out after missing first practice with power-unit issues but Aston Martin doesn't sound too healthy. The Spaniard is on the soft tyre but there is no chance he'll be climbing up the order anytime soon.

George Russell has been tipped as a potential world championship contender this year but what about his team-mate Kimi Antonelli? The Italian is no longer a rookie driver and he starts his second season with Mercedes with high expectations.

If he can put a consistent run of form together, and avoid another wobble during the European leg of the campaign, what chance does he have of challenging for the crown?

Antonelli has jumped above Lewis Hamilton on the timing tower with a marker of 1:20.801 on the hard compound.

The stewards are going to take a look at these early incidents involving George Russell and Arvid Lindblad in the pit lane and the slow-moving Alpine of frano Colapinto after the session.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton has started strongly in the Ferrari, the seven-time world champion topping the timesheets with a 1:20.903 from ex-Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

The marshals are on the scene and four-time world champion Max Verstappen is being pushed back into the Red Bull garage. The Dutchman isn't going anywhere just yet.

His former team-mate Sergio Perez is also waiting to jump in his car but his new Cadillac pal Valtteri Bottas has made it out.

Franco Colapinto is an early runner on track but the Alpine suffers a bit of malfunction on the racing line. Lewis Hamilton was right alongside the Argentine driver and narrowly avoided a collision, telling his Ferrari pit wall Colapinto was "crazy slow on the pit straight".

Now Max Verstappen has come to a stop in the pit lane in the Red Bull. It's all kicking off in second practice.

George Russell is trying to get out of the pit lane but the Mercedes clips the Racing Bulls of rookie Arvid Lindblad. Russell's front wing takes the hit, which was probably a result of Lindblad being a bit nervous in the queue.

There are new regulations and fresh terminology to try and get our heads around for the 2026 season. It might take a few races, but we'll get there in the end:

• Cars - shorter, lighter, nimbler and more environmentally friendly
• Engines - now a near 50-50 split between electric and internal combustion power - and use fully sustainable fuels
• DRS overtaking aid gone - replaced by overtake mode, a burst of extra electrical power when a driver is within one second of the car ahead at a detection point, usually the final corner
• Active aero - both the front and rear wings adjust angles to reduce drag on straights (straight mode) and increase downforce in corners (corner mode)
• Recharge - cars can recover energy during braking, running the engine at high revs in corners, lifting off early and coasting at the end of straights and from not being at full throttle
• Boost mode - not exactly a new feature but at the push of a button anywhere on track, drivers can get maximum power from the battery to aid with an attack or defense

Second practice is green.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Speak of the devil, here's the commentary team now.

Click the 'listen live' tab at the top of this page, follow on BBC Sounds or ask your smart speaker to "play BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra" to tune in.

Former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley is in the commentary box today with the rest of the 5 Live team and here is explaining the changes to the 2026 cars and why they'll create a different way of racing this year.

The cars are not the only thing that have been given a makeover this year - the Pirelli tyres are also smaller and lighter in 2026. While the wheel rim is still 18 inches, the front-tyre width will decrease by 25mm and the rear tyres by 30mm to reduce drag and save on some weight.

As for what compounds teams and drivers will using for the Australian Grand Prix, they stay the same as last year's race, so take your pick from the C3 (white) as the hard, C4 as the medium (yellow) and C5 as the soft (red).

The green intermediate tyre and the blue full wets have also made the journey but the conditions in Melbourne, which is notorious for its fast-changing weather, is looking fairly settled for the season-opener.

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Martin boss Adrian Newey has been speaking during the break about the team's latest woes.

"We're having continuing problems with the battery, had a fresh problem that was communication with the battery to its management system. But the underlying problem is the vibration issues we continue to struggle with," he said.

"We tried a different solution in Lance's car in the first session. There's some analysis going on as to whether that helped.

"Realistically, it's just trying to manage the problem. We are short on batteries. We have only two batteries left, the two in the car, so if we lose one of those it's a big problem. So we're having to be careful how we use the batteries."

Image source, Getty Images

Hello again, folks. The all-new era Formula 1 is off and running in Melbourne and Ferrari topped the timesheets after an hour of practice at Albert Park. Charles Leclerc the quicker of the two Scuderia drivers by over four tenths from seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull also looked tidy in practice, finishing third and fourth, while early pre-season favourites Mercedes were down the pecking order in seventh for George Russell and eighth for Kimi Antonelli.

Aston Martin are still way behind the field after more problems caused Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll to sit out in frustration.

Spaniard Alonso failed to make it out because of an issue with his Honda engine while Canadian Stroll only managed three laps before a power-unit problem was also found on his car.

World champion Lando Norris also had to watch on from the sidelines after a gearbox problem curtailed his run plan.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne

Image source, Getty Images

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton struck the first blow of the new Formula 1 era with first and second fastest times in opening practice at the Australian Grand Prix.

Leclerc replaced Hamilton in top spot with a late lap that moved him 0.469 seconds clear of the seven-time champion.

Until then, less than 0.1secs had separated Hamilton, Leclerc and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Verstappen's new team-mate Isack Hadjar was fourth fastest, 0.820secs off the pace, ahead of 18-year-old Briton Arvid Lindblad, making his debut for the Racing Bulls team.

Aston Martin, whose dire form has been in many ways the story of the new season so far, had a predictably difficult session.

Read the full report here

So, it's ridiculously early advantage to Ferrari and Red Bull at the top of the timesheets after the opening hour in Melbourne but what will title holder Lando Norris be thinking after missing a chunk of running on Friday? The good news is McLaren have got a couple of hours before second practice to sort out any remaining problems.

The new teams on the block will be pleased so far, although Cadillac did lose a couple of mirrors along the way.

If you want to go to bed, feel free. But set your alarm for 04:45 GMT when we'll be back up and running for second practice at 05:00.

See you shortly!

Harry Benjamin, Jennie Gow, Jolyon Palmer and Marc Priestley breakdown every detail of the new season of rules and regulations, plus world champion Lando Norris and Brit rookie Arvid Lindblad also stop by the podcast - which you can listen to on BBC Sounds and watch on the BBC iPlayer this season - to chat about their hopes for the 2026 campaign.

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

The undertaking of a project like Audi's (building their own engine for the first time), you can't underestimate how big it is. Audi and Red Bull have both done a phenomenal job in that regard.