Ten things we learned from F1 practice

To nobody's great surprise Mercedes drivers topped the first official practice sessions of the 2015 Formula 1 season, but Friday in Australia threw up several fascinating storylines.

The revival of Ferrari, McLaren-Honda's stuttering start and the phoenix-from-the-ashes return of Manor-Marussia meant there was plenty to look out for across the three hours of practice at Albert Park in Melbourne.

So what did we learn? And what can we expect in qualifying and in the race on Sunday? Ben Anderson, Lawrence Barretto and Edd Straw are your guides.

ROSBERG HAS THE EDGE IN MERCEDES FIGHT
Ben Anderson (@BenAndersonAuto)

Rivals were openly shocked by the pace Mercedes showed in the closing stages of pre-season testing in Barcelona, and from what we've seen across the first two sessions of free practice in Melbourne they have no reason to feel more at ease as the first race of the new season draws nearer.

On single-lap pace, the fastest Mercedes (Nico Rosberg's) was seven tenths clear of the fastest non-Mercedes (Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari), on both compounds of tyre. On long runs, they are also ahead. We can be almost certain there will be nothing other than a silver car on pole and a silver car winning this race, reliability allowing.

But which one? At the moment, Rosberg appears to have a slight edge over his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg was a full tenth faster when both Mercedes attempted a performance run on the soft tyre in FP2, and his (short) race run was also more impressive than Hamilton's.

Rosberg twice broke into the 1m31s on his simulation, and also managed three sub-32.2s efforts, while Hamilton couldn't break the 32s barrier and struggled for consistency.

The fact Hamilton complained about a "difficult day" and imperfect balance on his W06 supports the theory that he is trailing Rosberg at the moment, and that his hopes of improving his progression through free practice to make his life easier on Sundays hasn't started too well...

But he still has FP3 to whip his car into shape, and we all know what a formidable racer Hamilton is when Sunday comes.

FERRARI COULD BE BEST OF THE REST ON SUNDAY
Ben Anderson

Ferrari looked impressive throughout pre-season. Not Mercedes-impressive, but impressive relative to everyone else.

The first running of the new season at a grand prix weekend backs up the impression that Ferrari has made significant progress, and could have potentially leapfrogged both Red Bull and Williams.

Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen were comfortably faster than the Williams of Valtteri Bottas over a single lap, though Williams usually keeps pure performance in reserve until Saturday, so the Tifosi should be wary of getting too excited about Ferrari's qualifying prospects just yet.

However, comparable longer runs made by Raikkonen and Bottas on the soft tyre (Ferrari split programmes and put Vettel on the medium) in FP2 suggest Maranello is comfortably ahead in race trim, especially given Raikkonen was fairly scathing about the quality of his own driving.

Of course Williams could well have some speed in reserve, but the Scuderia looks a genuine contender for the podium at the first race of 2015 - something that certainly couldn't be said last year.

RED BULL IS STRUGGLING
Ben Anderson

No one would argue Red Bull isn't much better prepared for the first race of 2015 than it was for this race last year, but, as ever in the relentless world of Formula 1, the game has moved on substantially since then, and currently it looks as though the former world champion team is losing touch with its main rivals.

Its engine partner Renault has been battling new driveability problems resulting from the introduction of performance upgrades at the final pre-season test in Barcelona.

Those issues still haven't been solved, making consistency difficult to find if you are driving an RB11 or a Toro Rosso STR10. If your name is Daniel Ricciardo, driving your car at all became a significant challenge, thanks to a hydraulic problem in the first session and then a full-blown engine failure in FP2.

STR graduate Daniil Kvyat's day was less eventful than Ricciardo's, but his performance on track will not give Red Bull much cause for optimism.

The Russian was significantly slower than the Williams of Bottas and Raikkonen's Ferrari over both one lap and a longer run on the soft tyre.

Comparing his pace with that of Carlos Sainz Jr (who was comfortably the faster of the Toro Rosso drivers thanks to a battery problem on Max Verstappen's car) suggests Red Bull may well be fighting its sister team on Sunday, rather than racing Ferrari and Williams.

TORO ROSSO ROOKIES LOOK LIKE VETERANS
Ben Anderson

Toro Rosso is deploying comfortably the youngest and least experienced driver line-up ever seen on a Formula 1 grid, but already its two new charges are looking like grizzled veterans on the evidence of free-practice form.

Neither Sainz nor Verstappen had driven around the Albert Park circuit before the first session, but both were fast and virtually mistake-free as they got to grips with an unrefined track.

An unfortunate "sensor issue" with the battery in Verstappen's car robbed the 17-year-old of the chance to further quieten his critics with a rapid run in the second session, but his team-mate Sainz was impressively faster than Red Bull newboy Kvyat on both compounds of tyre over a single lap.

The Spaniard's longer run on the soft tyre also compared very favourably to Kvyat's, suggesting the Toro Rosso team has definitely produced a stronger car this year, given both it and parent team Red Bull are stymied equally by the limitations of the Renault engine.

LOTUS SHOULD SCORE POINTS ON SUNDAY...
Ben Anderson

After its well-documented annus horribilis in 2014, the first target for Lotus is to get itself back into regular points-scoring contention.

Force India's late start and the ongoing woes at McLaren-Honda make this target significantly more reachable at the first race of 2015, but the new E23 may give Lotus reason to expect a bit more than just a few points on Sunday.

After losing his opening session to a "disconnected pipe" (which required the entire floor to be removed in order to reattach and check it) Romain Grosjean put in a seriously impressive long run in FP2, one that could potentially leave Red Bull and Toro Rosso sweating.

Team-mate Pastor Maldonado was only a tenth shy of beating both Kvyat and Sainz on pure pace on Friday afternoon (before his own pipe problem intervened), while Grosjean was faster and more consistent than the Renault-powered duo on his race run.

Of course the Mercedes engine now powering the Lotus is a big part of this equation, but regardless, this looks like a solid platform for a genuine revival at Team Enstone.

... BUT FORCE INDIA PROBABLY WON'T
Ben Anderson

Force India has done an almost miraculous job to get itself into shape so quickly, given the massive delays in preparing its latest challenger for the start of the season.

The VJM08 only managed two-and-a-bit days of testing before heading to Melbourne and that means the car is unlikely to allow the team to pick up where it left off at the end of 2014, when it finished sixth in the constructors' championship.

After overcoming some early brake problems, Nico Hulkenberg managed to outpace Felipe Nasr's Sauber and lap within three tenths of Grosjean's Lotus in FP2, but the German driver reckons the new car is still displaying the aerodynamic weaknesses of its predecessor, which means it has probably slipped back in race trim compared with its improved rivals.

Both Hulkenberg and team-mate Sergio Perez put in consistent long runs in FP2, but they will struggle to hang on to the midfield battle at their current pace.

That means they'll need some luck to score points on Sunday.

McLAREN-HONDA IS IN NO-MAN'S LAND
Ben Anderson

More engine problems (this time related to the air intake), plus another unfortunate crash (this time for reserve driver Kevin Magnussen) means the clouds of disappointment that hung over McLaren-Honda during pre-season have yet to disperse.

Magnussen's unfortunate brush with the wall at Turn 6 in FP2, after the rear of the MP4-30 got away from him under braking, means the Dane did little of note in the car on Friday.

Team-mate Jenson Button at least clocked a respectable 21 laps in FP2, but the 2009 world champion's best lap on the soft tyre was only quicker than cars that suffered substantial problems.

A lack of power from the Honda engine in FP2 (the reasons for which Button said were "complicated") left the Brit hoping Manor GP will manage to successfully qualify its cars and ensure McLaren-Honda doesn't end up on the last row of the grid for Sunday's race.

As things stand, the renewal of one of F1's most successful and iconic partnerships could be set to begin in embarrassing fashion.

THE SILVER LINING IN SAUBER'S CLOUD
Lawrence Barretto (@LawroBarretto)

Sauber's race weekend started off badly. Giedo van der Garde won his case to drive for the team this season, which meant the Swiss outfit had three drivers under contract and only two seats in which to place them.

When team principal Monisha Kaltenborn finally broke her silence, she admitted the on-going saga was having a negative impact on the team - with neither car making an appearance in first practice.

And though Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson hit the track in the second session, Sauber's problems continued when Ericsson headed for the pits, having completed just 14 laps, with rear-suspension problems.

Nasr's fastest lap on low fuel didn't make the best reading either, with the Brazilian sandwiched between the two Force Indias in 11th of the 16 cars that ran.

But there remain reasons to be positive, given some of that lack of speed is likely to relate to the fact the team missed the first session and that Nasr's long-run pace was not too far off that of Kvyat's Red Bull and Sainz's Toro Rosso.

This could be cause for some glimmer of hope on what has otherwise been a dire week for Peter Sauber's famous Swiss squad.

MANOR GP IS UP AGAINST IT
Edd Straw (@eddstrawf1)

The revived Manor GP team performed a miracle even making it to Australia, but getting its cars back out on track is proving to be just as big a hurdle.

Neither Roberto Merhi nor Will Stevens were able to take to the track today, and the team is unsure whether the cars will be rolling in time for Saturday's final free practice session.

With question marks over whether the cars (modified versions of last year's to comply with the 2015 regulations powered by 2014-specification Ferrari power units) would be quick enough to qualify under the 107 per cent rule, that's a big setback.

The main problem is the need to recreate the electronic infrastructure inside the car to simply allow it to fire up. Such is the complexity of the systems on the car - which include technology from a multitude of suppliers beyond Ferrari - this is a huge task.

The problem is that all of the team's hard-drives were wiped in anticipation of an auction of its assets that never happened. Getting even ostensibly simple things working again can take a long time and it's something the team has to work through.

Add to the mix that this is a team hastily brought together and lacking in numbers, and it's clear how big a task this is. But this team is nothing if not determined, and you can be sure that an all-nighter will be pulled to get things going.

How soon that is and how fast it will go, only time will tell.

A ONE-STOP RACE IS POSSIBLE
Edd Straw

There has been criticism for several years of Pirelli's high-degradation rubber, but changes to the construction of the rears aimed at easing the stress of the tyre appear to have paid off.

The objective was to widen the contact patch and some of the long runs completed on Friday afternoon suggested that tyre durability will not be a problem.

In fact, in Melbourne, given the low-stress nature of the track, one-stop strategies could be eminently possible, although the amount of time spent on the medium tyre means that a two-stopper to allow its use to be minimised would probably work out better in a straightforward race.

With the compounds largely unchanged from last year, this improved construction was responsible for ensuring that increased car speeds did not lead to excessive degradation.

"We worked on the rear tyre because we knew that there was going to be these jumps in performance," said Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.

"We felt we needed to make sure that we didn't have a too high level degradation, which we thought could be possible because we saw some peaks of temperature in the [tyre] footprint area last year that ideally we would have put right if we were allowed to.

"The compounds last year generally worked pretty well, so we felt if we had an increase in performance then those compounds might be stressed a little bit more and that should bring us into a two/three-stop strategy."