Hamilton on top as Ferrari struggle in early exchanges
Recent months would have left him with a lot of determination to prove himself again, and attain consistency with bat and ball to win the race for all-rounder’s spot for the World Cup.
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AVG MELBOURNE:LEWIS Hamilton made a mockery of his claim that Ferrari would be half-a-second quicker at the Australian Grand Prix by easily clocking the fastest times in the season’s opening practice runs on Friday.
The Briton led a Mercedes onetwo in the second session as he powered round the Albert Park circuit under clear skies with a best of one minute 22.600 seconds.
Valtteri Bottas was second (1:22.648) with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third (1:23.400), marginally ahead of impressive new teammate Pierre Gasly.
Sebastian Vettel, who has won in Melbourne for the past two years, could only manage fifth, nearly a second adrift of arch-rival Hamilton, while Ferrari partner Charles Leclerc struggled to ninth, straddling the kerb and spinning as he pushed hard late in the day. The man Leclerc replaced, Kimi Raikkonen, pushed his Alfa Romeo — formerly Sauber — into sixth.
The Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo were sixth and seventh respectively.
“I have a positive buzz from driving the car — this is what I love doing. The car feels like it’s in a similar place to where it was in Barcelona, which is positive coming to a different track. We got through our programme really well, there were no issues on track. There’s plenty of stuff that we can improve on, but this was not a bad start,” said Hamilton.
LEWIS’ PASSION NOT A PROBLEM FOR MERC
MELBOURNE:MERCEDES team chief Toto Wolff said he had no problem with star driver Lewis Hamilton’s passion for extreme sports, despite the injury risk to such a lucrative asset.
Hamilton’s adrenaline-fuelled off-season hobbies, including skydiving, surfing, snowboarding and riding motorbikes, have raised eyebrows in the past.
Wolff said, “Of course, I’m always worried and we had a laugh last year because I couldn’t get hold of him or my chief strategist or one of the race engineers because they were racing motorbikes. But Lewis is not an 18-or 19-year-old anymore, he is a fivetime world champion and he knows exactly what works for him and what doesn’t.” The batting mainstay for the three-time IPL champions, Rohit carries the bulk of responsibility as far as getting runs is concerned. After a mixed run against Australia, Rohit will aim to attain consistency ahead of the World Cup.
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RED BULL, MERCEDES AGAINST EXPANSION
MELBOURNE: Red Bull and Mercedes on Friday said they were against more teams being added after the sport’s chief suggested 12 would be better than the current
AVG 10. FIA president Jean Todt has admitted he is keen to boost the number of teams, but is facing resistance from constructors who have witnessed several outfits come and go as they struggle with spiralling costs.
KRUNAL PANDYA: Being one of the top bowlers in limited-overs formats, Bumrah will take this IPL as the platform to set himself up for the
World Cup. He was costly in a few games against Australia, and would aim to work on new plans in IPL.
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SR The veteran Sri Lankan would form a tough bowling pair with Bumrah to face first up. His toe-crushers remain the best weapon, and Mumbai will be immensely benefitted with two similar bowlers in their ranks.
WKTS SR The explosive West Indies batsman has provided Mumbai strong starts in the past, and his current form raises the three-time winners’ hopes for a sturdy opening pair.
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Mumbai Indians
The South African dasher provides Mumbai Indians a lot of firepower at the top, and his string of high scores in the ODI series against Sri Lanka makes him the one to watch out for. RUNS AVG
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