Lewis Hamilton continued his fast Friday form by topping the second practice session in Melbourne. Despite holding a hefty lead following the first ninety minutes of running this morning, the gap closed up considerably in the afternoon session.

Hamilton's fastest time was a 1:23.931 on the ultra soft tyre, while Red Bull's Max Verstappen sat just over a tenth of a second behind. The third spot was filled by Valtteri Bottas, with his compatriot Kimi Raikkonen following close behind.

The drivers struggled in the early parts of the session, with plenty of them taking to the grass. In one incident, Bottas was distracted by Raikkonen heading into Turn 3 and took evasive action into the gravel, before going off on his own later on his the session.

Sebastian Vettel set the fifth fastest time, while Romain Grosjean kept Haas' optimism up by ending the day in sixth place. The second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo followed the Frenchman, ending Friday running in seventh.

After missing out on running in the first practice session, Fernando Alonso was eighth fastest, with his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne rounding out the top ten. Sandwiched between the two papaya-coloured cars in P9 was Kevin Magnussen.

Carlos Sainz finished just outside the top ten in eleventh, ahead of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg. Lance Stroll followed the German, meaning only three and a half tenths of a second separated Alonso in eighth and Stroll in fourteenth.

Esteban Ocon was fifteenth, leading the Toro Rosso pair of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly. Sergey Sirotkin followed in eighteenth, while Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc rounding out the field, a gap of one-thousand of a second separating the duo.

There was a brief red flag during the session, as a wire came loose on the start-finish line. However, it was quickly cut away and running was only delayed by a short number of minutes.

Fergal Walsh