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Lewis Hamilton has made it a clean sweep of fastest laps on Friday at Melbourne, as Mercedes stretched its legs over the rest of the field during the afternoon session.
The Briton's session-topping lap time was a 1:22.600, which was just under half a tenth ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
The nearest challengers to the Silver Arrows were the Red Bull's of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, however the energy drink squad was eight-tenths down on Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel was fifth, ahead of former teammate Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo. Seventh and eight was the Renault duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo, roughly one second behind the pace.
The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was ninth, while rounding out the top ten was Romain Grosjean, with the former Renault and Lotus driver getting the better of Daniil Kvyat and teammate Kevin Magnussen.
Leclerc spun his Ferrari in the final moments, losing control of the car on the exit of Turn 4 after straddling the exit kerb.
It was another lacklustre session for Williams, who once again was the slowest in the field. George Russell, the leading Williams in 19th, was 1.7 seconds behind Lando Norris, who finished one position ahead of his compatriot.
Alexander Albon suffered a spin at the penultimate corner in the closing stages of the session, but kept it out of the barriers, which he failed to do earlier this morning.
Albert Park - 15 March 2019
Grand Prix of Belgium
Replies (5)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Ugh, fp or not, I do not like seeing Merc so far ahead.
Kean
Posts: 692
Were Merc sandbagging the 2nd part of pre-season, or are Ferrari sandbagging now?.... Only practice, and it's Albert Park, so not a true representation of tracks to come, but still. Would really hate it if Merc is way out in front. Also, McLaren seem off the pace. Don't know what's more annoying; that McLaren are at the back or that Helmut seems to have been right.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
They aren't that much in front, VER was massively impeded by GIO. Looks like the Ferrari's are still not running at full pace. At the moment I still can't work out who's where apart from Williams.
FP3 should tell us more. Can't wait for qualifying.
RogerF1
Posts: 501
Duuuhhh - like we all didn’t really expect that from Merc. True to form from start up of the season at testing to 1st race.. We all hoped, we’re all disappointed and totally unsurprised.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
"Oh, Ferrari will be all over us now. We are doomed for sure, pinky finger!" Don't mock us Mercedes.