Melbourne FP3: Hamilton clean sweep as Ferrari duo chase

Hamilton lapped the Albert Park circuit in 1:22.292, leading Vettel by 0.264 seconds to top the timesheets in all three practice sessions Down Under.

The Briton's lap was more than three-tenths of a second quicker than his fastest in the second session on Friday but Vettel also improved dramatically on his previous mark in an encouraging sign for the Scuderia.

Vettel's new teammate Charles Leclerc was third quickest, less than half a second behind Hamilton, with Romaine Grosjean a more distant fourth for Haas.

Grosjean's teammate Kevin Magnussen was fifth quickest, with Red Bull's Pierre Gasly sixth.

Max Verstappen kept his Red Bull's pace under wraps, posting the ninth fastest lap, Valtteri Bottas and Toro Ross driver Daniil Kvyat - the Mercedes driver over a second down on his teammate at the top of the timing screens.

Williams's struggles continued into the weekend, with Robert Kubica posting the slowest lap of the 20 cars -- more than four seconds adrift of Hamilton, and behind his rookie teammate George Russell.

Midway through the session, Kubica came hurtling into pitlane and bumped into the wall, scattering debris to the annoyance of trailing Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen, who muttered about it on the team radio.

Former world champion Raikkonen, who switched from Ferrari, was 17th fastest for the team formerly known as Sauber.

Notably, ahead of qualifying Down Under, Hamilton has started the Australian Grand Prix from pole position every time since 2014 and will be hunting his sixth consecutive top spot start at Albert Park in qualifying later in the day.