Australian GP Friday practice
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By: Geoff Creighton
Summary
Status: Stopped
Here's our full report of that session, with Hamilton edging out Verstappen for the fastest time. Let's hope it stays close through final practice and qualifying. Hope to see you all back here tomorrow. 
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DY9CKmgW4AA9JGn.jpg"/>That’s it for today!
66 laps overall in a busy, busy session in Melbourne - a productive first day on track. #AusGP https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DY9CKmgW4AA9JGn.jpg
Hamilton clambers out of his Mercedes over the halo climbing frame and disappears out the back of the garage. He should be very, very pleased with his day's work.
Problems for Stroll after that practice start. "Shall I stop the car?" he asks. Williams tells him to employ "max cooling" all the way back to the pits. "It's engine-saving mode, so you will be slow." Very important to avoid an engine failure at race one .
Some replays showing a few wild moments for Verstappen at the end of that session. It seems the Red Bull drivers are having to work harder to keep up their pace than Hamilton and Bottas.
That's the end of FP2. Hamilton on top again for Mercedes, but Verstappen able to split the Mercedes on pure pace this time at least.
"Is everything OK with the brakes because the feeling is quite strange," Gasly asks Toro Rosso, which is comfortable enough with what it sees in the telemetry.
Vettel and Verstappen have shown decent pace on the soft tyre, but Hamilton just seems to be able to access his car's potential a bit more easily, whatever the compound. The world champion is looking really hooked up so far this weekend.
Replays show Verstappen making a late dive inside Gasly and Bottas flirting dangerously with the grass. Everyone is on track for the final eight minutes, so it's busy out there.
Verstappen and Bottas are both using soft tyres for the final few minutes of this session. Hamilton is still on ultras and lapping quickly, 1m28.717s last time around. Raikkonen is trying the supersoft for Ferrari. Vettel is in the pits. Ricciardo is matching Hamilton's pace but on ultrasoft tyres twice as new.
"We're down two turn for the soft tyre," Mercedes tells Bottas, who pits to switch tyres for the last part of this session. Verstappen pits too as traffic begins to disrupt his rhythm.
Verstappen, Bottas and the Ferraris dipping into the 1m28s now, as Hamilton's pace drops to 1m29.0s. That's better!
Hamilton's long-run pace looking ominous on the ultrasoft. He's consistently in the 1m28s at the moment. No one else is getting close to that consistently at the moment.
As an illustration of how tight things are in the midfield, less than one second covers Alonso in eighth to Sirotkin's Williams in 18th. The Saubers are currently cut adrift at the back, almost a second between Marcus Ericsson and Sirotkin's time.
Current top 10: 1 Hamilton 1m23.931s; 2 Verstappen 1m24.058s; 3 Bottas 1m24.159s; 4 Raikkonen 1m24.214s; 5 Vettel 1m24.451s; 6 Grosjean 1m24.648s; 7 Ricciardo 1m24.721s (yet to complete a qualifying run); 8 Alonso 1m25.200s; 9 Magnussen 1m25.246s; 10 Vandoorne 1m25.285s.
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