Free Practice 2: Hamilton doubles the lead in Australia

The Briton is the only driver to go under 24 minutes on a lap and sets the Friday benchmark at 1'23''931. Hamilton anticipate the Red Bull de Max Verstappen by a small tenth, while his teammate Valtteri Bottas ranks third.

The two follow Ferrari by Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel, who both switched to Ultra-Soft tires for the first time this weekend. Romain Grosjean confirms the good health of Haas F1 Team by adding the sixth best time in FP2 to its seventh place in the morning.

Daniel Ricciardo had to settle for seventh place after being cut off on what was going to be his best lap launched by a red flag mid-session. An interruption caused by the need to send an official to repair a timing cable at the start/finish line.

Fernando Alonso finishes eighth again aboard the first McLaren. The Woking team, which had experienced reliability problems in the morning, still places its two drivers in the Top 10 with Stoffel Vandoorne two places behind his double world champion teammate. Between the two, slips a Kevin Magnussen (Haas F1 Team) more lively than during EL1.

If Hamilton concludes this Friday with the best time in the two sessions of the day, the analysis of the long stints which traditionally occupy the teams in the second half of the session shows very tight gaps between Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari in racing configuration. What portends a real three-way fight this weekend?