Hamilton: The gap closed up a little bit between all the cars

Hamilton started the day by topping the timing screens at the end of FP1 by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Valtteri Bottas, in the afternoon FP2 session it was again the Briton who was quickest, but this time by only a tenth of a second over Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.

As he begins his quest to defend his title and targets a fifth world title, Hamilton relishes the prospect of a close battle, “The gap closed up a little bit between all the cars in second practice, but that’s exciting anyway. It is more challenging for me to drive and eke out a little more from the car. We have to establish if I lost some performance or they all gained. But I enjoyed driving.”

Rain is being predicted over Melbourne for Saturday which could throw the cat in among the pigeons, Hamilton explained, “When it gets cooler it gets better. It gets easier. Usually, when it gets hotter it has often in the past suited other teams, but we are all in a similar position."

“Tomorrow it is going to rain, as far as I am aware, and the same on Sunday. I don’t know if I have driven in the rain yet on these tyres, so it will be interesting.”

There were fears that the Pirelli tyres could be a problem as drivers struggled to generate heat into them during preseason testing in Barcelona.

But not so the world champion reckoned on Friday evening, “The tyres definitely didn’t seem to have the issue that we had after Barcelona, where they were just blistering the whole time. So it felt a lot more normal. But obviously, the car is quicker here than it was last year, so it feels better everywhere.”

“Turns 11 and 12 are just crazy! We are not even braking into that corner, it is insane. But we are going to get quicker and quicker through the weekend. Well if it does not rain...”

Hamilton will be targeting his seventh pole position start at the venue in qualifying on Saturday and a day later will be looking to add to his tally of two victories in Australia.