Australian Grand Prix: Friday round-up

Motorsport Week provides your quickfire round-up of Friday's track activity for the first event of 2018.

Formula 1 returned to official action on Friday with the opening pair of practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park street circuit.

Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton, a six-time pole sitter and two-time winner of the event, began proceedings on top in FP1, and followed it up with another pacesetting effort in FP2.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen emerged as his closest challenger over one-lap, 0.127 seconds adrift, but has pinpointed his hopes on the forecast wet weather arriving on Saturday.

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That could throw a curveball into the equation, with both of Friday’s sessions having taken place in warm and sunny conditions.

Whatever happens, though, Daniel Ricciardo will not be starting from the front of the grid, in a blow to the hopes of the home fans.

Ricciardo will drop three places from wherever he qualifies due to a breach of the red flag regulations during second practice.

Ferrari was a subdued fourth and fifth overall, but Sebastian Vettel remained calm about his half-second deficit, insisting that there is still pace to come.

Pre-season testing suggested that Haas was one to keep an eye on, and Romain Grosjean delivered in FP2, placing sixth, just seven-tenths behind Hamilton.

Haas has form in Melbourne, taking sixth on its debut in 2016, a result Grosjean repeated across one-lap 12 months ago, before retiring in the race.

Grosjean held a gap of half a second back to nearest midfield opponent Fernando Alonso, as just 0.774s separated the Spaniard from Williams debutant Sergey Sirotkin, in 18th.

That covered both representatives from McLaren – which recovered track time after initial exhaust problems – Renault, Force India, Toro Rosso and Williams, along with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.

Sauber finished comfortably at the rear, its eight-tenths deficit to Sirotkin more than the gap that covers the bulk of the midfield group which it aspires to join.

One more practice session, of length 60 minutes, follows at 14:00 local time (03:00 GMT), with qualifying scheduled for 17:00 (06:00 GMT) – and as already mentioned, rain is forecast!