Hamilton closes out Australian GP practice fastest
Lewis Hamilton continued to lead the way for Mercedes as practice for the Australian Grand Prix came to a close on Saturday afternoon at Albert Park, edging Formula 1 rival Sebastian Vettel by two-tenths of a second in FP3.
After Mercedes finished a daunting three-quarters of a second clear of the field in FP2 on Friday, Ferrari was able to put up a more serious fight through final practice as Vettel and teammate Charles Leclerc improved their best times by roughly a second.
Lewis Hamilton continued to lead the way for Mercedes as practice for the Australian Grand Prix came to a close on Saturday afternoon at Albert Park, edging Formula 1 rival Sebastian Vettel by two-tenths of a second in FP3.
After Mercedes finished a daunting three-quarters of a second clear of the field in FP2 on Friday, Ferrari was able to put up a more serious fight through final practice as Vettel and teammate Charles Leclerc improved their best times by roughly a second.
But it was not enough to end Hamilton's stint at the top of the timesheets in Australia, with the five-time world champion turning in a best lap of 1m22.292s to edge out Vettel by two-tenths of a second in the final runs before qualifying later today.
Vettel lost time due to a small lock-up at the final chicane on his best lap, giving Ferrari hope that he may have been a step closer to Hamilton as the team bids to end the Briton's domination of qualifying in Australia later today. No driver has beaten Hamilton to pole in Australia since 2013.
Haas turned heads with its pace in FP3 as Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Pierre Gasly in P6, who finished as the leading Red Bull driver.
Max Verstappen paid the price for a couple of errors on his best qualifying lap as he finished ninth for Red Bull, while Valtteri Bottas also lost time due to an error on his lap, taking seventh in the sister Mercedes. They were split by Daniil Kvyat in eighth for Toro Rosso, with Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top 10 for Renault ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg.
Antonio Giovinazzi took 12th for Alfa Romeo ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sergio Perez, while Alexander Albon enjoyed his first error-free session of the weekend in 15th for Toro Rosso. Lance Stroll wound up 16th for Racing Point followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Lando Norris, as Williams once again propped up the running order with George Russell and Robert Kubica in 19th and 20th respectively.
Qualifying begins at 6am GMT on Saturday.
