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McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished the first day of the new Formula 1 season in first place after Friday practice at the Australian Grand Prix.

The narrative of the weekend so far has been about Aston Martin’s plight at the back of the field as much as the fight at the front, following the biggest regulation change in the sport’s history.

Aston Martin finished the day five seconds off the pace, and team principal Adrian Newey has laid bare the team’s struggles across two compelling news conferences.

Newey also revealed that star driver Fernando Alonso is in a “hard mental place” as a result of engine partner Honda’s lack of performance and reliability, and that he himself “feels a bit powerless”.

At the front of the field, Piastri was 0.214 seconds quicker than Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli at the end of the second session.

The Italian’s team-mate George Russell was third fastest, ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The competitive picture is still unclear after a day on which many of the teams and drivers admitted they were struggling to work out the optimum use of energy with this year’s new engines. Management of the hybrid system is critical with the power split about 50-50 between internal combustion engine and electrical power.

Mercedes, though, set highly impressive times on their race-distance runs late in the session that seemed to underline their position as pre-season favourites.

Russell looked as if he had an advantage over the rest of the field of as much as 0.6secs a lap on his long run, leaving Leclerc sounding a little resigned.

Ferrari were fancied by many coming into the season and spent much of the day at the top of the times, only to be usurped by McLaren and Mercedes.

Leclerc said: “P1 looked positive but then in P2 the teams are showing little by little a bit more and unfortunately we seem to be on the back foot especially compared to Mercedes, who look very strong.

“I don’t think they showed everything on low fuel but on high fuel it was very impressive. It is the first time probably we see how much (of a gap) there is to them and it is a bit more than I would have liked.”

Australian Piastri said: “If you can operate the car roughly how you expect it to, then you find a huge amount of lap time.

“I think we have been there or thereabouts. don’t think we ever thought we were a long way behind Mercedes and Ferrari. I think we thought we were just a little step behind.”

Antonelli added: “Massive learning every time we go on track and we understand more about the track. It looks like it is a close fight with the top teams. It is not going to be easy. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, they all look strong.”

The focus has been on Aston Martin as a result of major problems with their Honda engine.

Alonso missed the entire first session because of vibration problems with his engine but was able to do 17 laps in the second, although he was 4.933 seconds off the pace in 20th place.

Aston Martin’s biggest issue is the fact that vibrations from the engine are causing the batteries to break. Newey revealed the team are down to their last two batteries. “That, given our kind of rate of battery damage, is quite a scary place to be in,” he said.

Alonso said: “Not much learning to be honest, unfortunately the Honda issue in P1 and some Honda issues in P2 as well a little bit limited our number of laps today. That was not needed again because we need to recover a little bit in terms of understanding the car and the window where this car operates.

“We brought a completely new (aerodynamic) package into this race and we need to understand where to run it. Hopefully more laps tomorrow.

“Obviously I feel disappointed to not have more batteries in stock, only supplying one team but it is more a question for them.”

Completing the top 10 was the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar and Haas’ Esteban Ocon, whose British team-mate Oliver Bearman was 11th.

1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 1:19.729

2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.214

3. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.320

4. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.321

5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.562

6. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.637

7. Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.065

8. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +1.193

9. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.212

10. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.450

From Stuart McCloskey’s takedown of Marcus Smith to the coaching box’s delirious celebrations, Ireland’s resounding win over England conjured a series of enduring images.

McCloskey, who battered England with his buccaneering carries, was an obvious poster boy for the win. As were Rob Baloucoune, whose work at both ends of the field was lauded by head coach Andy Farrell, and Jamison Gibson-Park, who pulled the strings ingeniously in the record 42-21 win.

Given the intense scrutiny he has faced as one of the two key actors in Ireland’s fly-half debate, the headline-hogging endeavours of his team-mates would have suited Jack Crowley just fine.

Reinstated to the Ireland line-up for the England game following Sam Prendergast’s indifferent start to the Six Nations, Crowley re-established himself as Ireland’s first-choice 10 with a quietly confident display.

It was an important game for Crowley. Having played second fiddle to Prendergast for much of last year’s Six Nations, his Munster form elevated him back to the line-up for Ireland’s Chicago reunion with the All Blacks in November.

He kept his place for the following week’s win over Japan but Prendergast was entrusted from the start for the last two November games – against Australia and South Africa – and the first two Six Nations fixtures with France and Italy.

And while Crowley made a significant impact off the bench against Italy, his day ended with a missed touch-finder that wrecked his side’s hopes of securing a bonus point.

Even with that, Crowley did not feel the England game was about “proving my point”.

“Being honest, no [there was no extra pressure],” said the 26-year-old, who is retained at fly-half for Friday’s game against Wales in Dublin (20:10 GMT).

The online debate surrounding Crowley and Prendergast moved Farrell to launch an impassioned plea for “keyboard warriors” to “cop on” following the Italy win.

It has been a constant discussion point ever since a then 21-year-old Prendergast was elevated to the starting line-up during the 2024 autumn internationals. That one plays for Leinster and the other Munster has only fanned the flames.

Having been through his own battle for the shirt with Ronan O’Gara, Johnny Sexton – now an Ireland assistant coach – last year revealed he told Crowley and Prendergast to delete their social media accounts.

But while online commentary had Farrell visibly irritated a few weeks ago, Crowley appeared unperturbed when the topic was raised before the Wales match.

“It is [easy] if you just if you just put it away, don’t engage with it,” he said.

“It’s like anything. You have a choice and you can choose to not engage. You can choose to engage. And it’s just like creating good habits day to day, like with your nutrition or diet or training performance, you make a choice and you commit to it.”

Social media comments are one thing but Crowley understands that the atmosphere during games can affect players too.

Against England, his opposite number George Ford was ironically cheered for finding touch after missing two earlier efforts.

“I think pre-empting situations where you’re going to be under pressure, whether it’s in play or whether it’s your individual technique,” he said when asked how to deal with a hostile environment.

“For us it might be kicking, but for line-out throwers, it might be the pressure that they could be getting in hostile environments. So during the week, just feeling what it might be like to be under a little bit of pressure.

With the shirt in his possession once more, the onus is now on Crowley to continue his solid form heading into a World Cup year.

For him, that means sticking to his process of trying to simplify in-game decisions in the face of the uncertainty and chaos that Test rugby brings.

“I’m not focusing too much on what’s going well and what’s not going well [in his own game], I’m just focusing on how I can bring my best day to day.

From Stuart McCloskey’s takedown of Marcus Smith to the coaching box’s delirious celebrations, Ireland’s resounding win over England conjured a series of enduring images.

McCloskey, who battered England with his buccaneering carries, was an obvious poster boy for the win. As were Rob Baloucoune, whose work at both ends of the field was lauded by head coach Andy Farrell, and Jamison Gibson-Park, who pulled the strings ingeniously in the record 42-21 win.

Given the intense scrutiny he has faced as one of the two key actors in Ireland’s fly-half debate, the headline-hogging endeavours of his team-mates would have suited Jack Crowley just fine.

Reinstated to the Ireland line-up for the England game following Sam Prendergast’s indifferent start to the Six Nations, Crowley re-established himself as Ireland’s first-choice 10 with a quietly confident display.

It was an important game for Crowley. Having played second fiddle to Prendergast for much of last year’s Six Nations, his Munster form elevated him back to the line-up for Ireland’s Chicago reunion with the All Blacks in November.

He kept his place for the following week’s win over Japan but Prendergast was entrusted from the start for the last two November games – against Australia and South Africa – and the first two Six Nations fixtures with France and Italy.

And while Crowley made a significant impact off the bench against Italy, his day ended with a missed touch-finder that wrecked his side’s hopes of securing a bonus point.

Even with that, Crowley did not feel the England game was about “proving my point”.

“Being honest, no [there was no extra pressure],” said the 26-year-old, who is retained at fly-half for Friday’s game against Wales in Dublin (20:10 GMT).

The online debate surrounding Crowley and Prendergast moved Farrell to launch an impassioned plea for “keyboard warriors” to “cop on” following the Italy win.

It has been a constant discussion point ever since a then 21-year-old Prendergast was elevated to the starting line-up during the 2024 autumn internationals. That one plays for Leinster and the other Munster has only fanned the flames.

Having been through his own battle for the shirt with Ronan O’Gara, Johnny Sexton – now an Ireland assistant coach – last year revealed he told Crowley and Prendergast to delete their social media accounts.

But while online commentary had Farrell visibly irritated a few weeks ago, Crowley appeared unperturbed when the topic was raised before the Wales match.

“It is [easy] if you just if you just put it away, don’t engage with it,” he said.

“It’s like anything. You have a choice and you can choose to not engage. You can choose to engage. And it’s just like creating good habits day to day, like with your nutrition or diet or training performance, you make a choice and you commit to it.”

Social media comments are one thing but Crowley understands that the atmosphere during games can affect players too.

Against England, his opposite number George Ford was ironically cheered for finding touch after missing two earlier efforts.

“I think pre-empting situations where you’re going to be under pressure, whether it’s in play or whether it’s your individual technique,” he said when asked how to deal with a hostile environment.

“For us it might be kicking, but for line-out throwers, it might be the pressure that they could be getting in hostile environments. So during the week, just feeling what it might be like to be under a little bit of pressure.

With the shirt in his possession once more, the onus is now on Crowley to continue his solid form heading into a World Cup year.

For him, that means sticking to his process of trying to simplify in-game decisions in the face of the uncertainty and chaos that Test rugby brings.

“I’m not focusing too much on what’s going well and what’s not going well [in his own game], I’m just focusing on how I can bring my best day to day.