Hamilton quickest in both practice sessions
MELBOURNE: Champion Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets for Mercedes in both practice sessions at the Formula One seasonopening Australian Grand Prix yesterday, but Red Bull’s Max Verstappen showed enough pace to give the Silver Arrows pause for thought.
After lapping Albert Park in 1min 24.026sec during the first free practice, Briton Hamilton improved the mark slightly to 1min 23.931sec in the second session on a balmy autumn day.
Red Bull’s Dutch wunderkind Verstappen was snapping at Hamilton’s heels, however, and finished only 0.127sec adrift of the fourtime champion after the second session.
Verstappen sandwiched himself between the Mercedes drivers, with Hamilton’s teammate, Valtteri Bottas, thirdquickest despite taking a couple of slides off the track.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in the second session but will have to face the stewards after Bottas nearly rammed into his rear and ended up in the gravel.
It was a less encouraging day for Ferrari’s fourtime champion Sebastian Vettel, who was more than half a second off the pace in the second session in fifth position, while Red Bull’s home hope, Daniel Ricciardo, battled to seventh.
There will be a buzz around the Haas garage, however, as Romain Grosjean was sixthquickest in the second session and teammate Kevin Magnussen ninth.
After battling an exhaust sys tem problem for much of the first session, Renaultpowered McLaren showed encouraging signs with twice world champion Fernando Alonso eventually lapping eighth and holding the position in the later session.
Canadian Lance Stroll’s day ended in frustration, his Williams forced to a halt at the end of the second session with overheating issues. He was 14th for the session, ahead of his rookie teammate Sergey Sirotkin, who was 18th.
New Zealander Brendon Hartley clocked the 16thfastest time in the second practice session, after having been 18thquickest in the first.
It was a busy day for the 28yearold, who is beginning his first full F1 campaign after joining Toro Rosso for the last four rounds of 2017.
He clocked 41 laps of practice in the late afternoon session — two more than any other driver in the 20strong field.
His best lap time of 1min 25.925sec was nearly 2sec slower than Hamilton.
Hartley’s teammate, Pierre Gasly, of France, was 11thfastest in the first session but was 17thquickest later.— Reuters/NZN