Hamilton fastest but Red Bull, Ferrari in hunt
Send a link to a friend
[March 23, 2018]
By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton topped the
timesheets for Mercedes in both practice sessions at the Australian
Grand Prix on Friday but Red Bull's Max Verstappen showed enough
pace to give the Silver Arrows pause for thought.
After lapping Albert Park in one minute, 24.026 seconds to dominate
the first practice of the new season, Hamilton improved the mark
slightly to 1:23.931 in the second session on a balmy autumn day.
"The car is quicker here than it was last year, so it feels better
everywhere," the four-times champion told reporters.
"It closed up a little bit in FP2 in terms of the gap between us
all, but that's exciting. It's more challenging for me to try and
eke out a little more from the car."
Red Bull's Dutch wunderkind Verstappen was snapping at his heels,
however, finishing only 0.127 seconds adrift of the Briton after the
second session.
Raising hopes of a contest for Mercedes, who have swept the driver
and constructors' titles for the past four years, there was less
than three-tenths of a second separating the champions from the Red
Bull and Ferrari cars.
Verstappen sandwiched himself between the Mercedes drivers, with
Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas third quickest despite taking a
couple of slides off the track.
"That's what I call a positive start to the season," Verstappen
tweeted. "The car handled well and I'm happy with today."
Fourth in FP2, Kimi Raikkonen showed why Ferrari may also be in the
hunt for Sunday's race but he will have to face the stewards after
allegedly impeding fellow Finn Bottas, who nearly rammed into his
rear and ended up in the gravel.
VETTEL UNCONCERNED
It was a tougher day for Raikkonen's four-times champion team mate
Sebastian Vettel, who was more than a half-second off the pace in
FP2 down in fifth position, a disappointing run he later downplayed.
"We still have quite a lot of performance in hand. I am not too
worried because I know if I get everything right we should be in
better shape," the German told reporters.
[to top of second column] |
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in action during practice REUTERS/Brandon
Malone
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was seventh in FP2 but his day ended on
a sour note, the home hope handed a three-place grid penalty for
going too fast during red flag conditions.
The second session was suspended for a few minutes after some
cabling became unearthed at the start-finish line.
Tipped to be the big improvers after a positive pre-season, Haas
delivered in spades, with Romain Grosjean sixth quickest in FP2 and
his team mate Kevin Magnussen ninth.
There was also some encouragement for McLaren, whose day began
bleakly with engineers fussing over an exhaust system problem that
left twice champion Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne confined
to the garage for most of the session.
However, Alonso finally emerged to post the eighth fastest lap and
held the position through FP2.
Canadian Lance Stroll's day ended in frustration, with his Williams
forced to a halt at the end of FP2 with overheating issues. He was
14th for the session, ahead of his debutant team mate Sergey
Sirotkin (18th).
While Mercedes showed they hold a slight edge in pace, rain forecast
on Saturday could yet add an element of uncertainty during
qualifying.
(Editing by Peter Rutherford/John O'Brien/Nick Mulvenney)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|