Australian GP: Lewis Hamilton recovers from problems in F1 practice

An oil sensor fault caused Hamilton's Mercedes to cut out on an installation lap at the start of free practice in Melbourne.

That sidelined the Briton for the whole of the morning, but he was fastest of all when he resumed running in the afternoon.

"I think we basically got a massive foundation in FP2 and I can build on that in FP3 and then see where we end up in qualifying," said Hamilton.

"It would have been great to have had FP1 but I got enough running thankfully in FP2 so I feel quite comfortable with the car.

Free practice 1 session report

"We've got good data and a good understanding of what's going on with the track, the car, the fuel, that kind of stuff, so yeah I feel positive, I'm just glad I got through it!"

Hamilton admitted to some frustration that his car was not returned to the pits during morning practice.

"It was a shame because there were 10 or 15 minutes where nobody was running, so they could easily have brought the car back," he said.

"I felt I was really on the back foot already. But I got up to the pace quite quickly and found a balance relatively fast as well so I'm positive."

Nico Rosberg was second in the sister Mercedes, though he said Hamilton's problem underlined that the pre-season favourite team could not relax.

"It's been a positive day, I'm still optimistic for the weekend but everything is on the edge," said Rosberg.

"Reliability, as you saw with my team-mate on track, and fuel consumption are massively tough."