Lewis Hamilton’s advantage over second-placed Sebastian Vettel in Free Practice 1 at Melbourne was just 0.036s. But Mercedes moved 0.8s clear of their nearest competitor – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen – in Free Practice 2, with Hamilton narrowly ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas.
With Free Practice 2, a chance for the teams to up the pace after a rather steady first practice, Hamilton and Bottas finally appeared to show something of the raw pace in their W10 challenger after a muted performance in pre-season testing, with Hamilton’s 1m 22.600s in the session over two tenths faster than his pole time from 2018.
