Hamilton leaves rivals in the dust, fastest in Australia practice sessions
Lewis Hamilton delivered the faster speeds that Formula One rule changes had promised on Friday, going under the racing lap record in the second practice session for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The three-time world champion had the fastest time in morning practice and his afternoon time of 1 minute, 23.620 seconds was quicker than the racing lap mark Michael Schumacher set in winning the 2004 title at the 5.303kilometer (3.295-mile) Albert Park Circuit.
It was only one-tenth slower slower than the best ever lap of Albert Park, which Sebastien Vettel set to take pole position in 2011.
“I’m super happy to be back in the car — particularly after a first day like that. It was 99 per cent perfect,” Hamilton said. “We’ve shown good form so far on both the long and short runs and we got every lap done that we wanted to.”
Ferrari driver Vettel split the Mercedes cars of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, who posted the fastest two times in the opening practice earlier Friday, with his 1:24.167 in the afternoon session.
Kimi Raikkonen’s afternoon run meant the Ferraris were second and fourth — a reflection of their positive pres-season testing in Barcelona — and pushed the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen back from third and fourth in the morning session to fifth and sixth in the afternoon.
Vettel was less than one-tenth of a second in front of Bottas, who replaced Nico Rosberg at Mercedes after the reigning world champion retired.
Hamilton, who won back-toback world championships in 2014 and ‘15 and narrowly lost to Rosberg last season, completed 22 laps in the morning session and 34 in the afternoon and used three tire compounds across the day.
The first practice was almost processional with the Mercedes cars followed by the two Red Bulls and the Ferraris.
Hamilton predicted ahead of the Australian GP that Ferrari would be the team to beat. He said Friday was indicative of how his rivals have improved and said qualifying on Saturday would be the first genuine test.
“We knew from FP1 that the Ferraris weren’t at their maximum. Of course, in FP2 all of a sudden they were quick,” Hamilton said. “We’ll see tomorrow how it really stands.”
ROLE FOR BERNIE?
Team principals said on Friday Bernie Ecclestone still had a role to play in Formula One following the high-profile takeover of the sport by Liberty Media.
Ecclestone’s time as the colourful ringmaster of Formula One was effectively finished in January when US-based Liberty Media completed its takeover of motorsport’s most prestigious brand in a deal valued at about $8 billion. But team principals in Melbourne Friday for the Australian Grand Prix, which kicks off the new Formula One season on Sunday, said he still had a place in glitzy global sport.
“What Bernie’s done has been amazing,” Red Bull chief Christian Horner said.