Lewis in groove ahead of opener

HAMILTON BURNS UP THE MELBOURNE TRACK

World champion Lewis Hamilton took up where he left off last season with the fastest lap times in opening practice for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix yesterday.

Hamilton lowered his opening practice best time of one minute 24.026 seconds with 1:23.931 in the second session to hold a 0.127sec gap over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (1:24.058).

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas (1:24.159) was third in the first exchanges of the new Formula One season.

The Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikonnen and Sebastian Vettel were fourth and fifth respectively and between 0.3 to 0.5secs down on Hamilton’s time ahead of today’s qualifying.

Australia’s big hope Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull was seventh fastest in 1:24.721.

“Coming to the first race you have no idea what it’s going to be like, but we started on the right foot today,” Hamilton said.

“The gap closed up a little bit between all the cars, but that’s exciting anyway.

“It’s more challenging for me to eke out more from the car, discover whether I have lost something or they have all gained.

“We’re going to get quicker and quicker through the weekend, that is if it doesn’t rain tomorrow.”

Hamilton’s long-run pace looked superior on the ultrasoft tyres, reeling off a steady run of 1:28s, but race pace simulations showed little between the three leading teams.

Red Bull lapped in the high 1:28s with Ferrari in the low 1:29s.

Verstappen and Bottas both used soft tyres for the final few minutes of the second practice session, while Raikkonen was on the supersoft for Ferrari.

“For me this has been a positive start to the weekend so I am really happy about that,” Verstappen said.

“The car has behaved well on this track which is always pleasing after only running in Barcelona to date. It is still hard to see who is strongest and how we will finish come race day.”

Hamilton is gunning for his fifth world title, an achievement which would match the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio and leave him just two adrift of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record.

Bottas and Raikkonen faced the stewards after the second session to explain a coming-together, when Bottas had to take to the gravel to avoid running into the Ferrari.

The surprise of the opening day was the performance of the Haas team to challenge for the fourth-fastest team on the back of two strong showings from Romain Grosjean. – AFP