Australian GP: Hamilton leads Vettel by 0.5s in FP2

The three-time world champion was again more than half a second quicker than his nearest opposition, which in FP2 came in the form of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari.

Vettel was the first driver to dip below the 1m25s mark when he used super-soft tyres to post a 1m24.926s early in the session.

The German's spell at the top of the times was extended when the session was halted just over 20 minutes in by Jolyon Palmer's heavy crash at the final corner.

Palmer was set to complete a personal-best lap when he lost the rear of his Renault and slammed backwards into the tyre wall on the outside of Turn 16.

The front left of the RS17 was pulled round into the wall by the impact, before the car bounced off and came to a rest in the middle of the track with substantial damage.

Once the wreckage was cleared, Mercedes put Hamilton – who had already lapped within a tenth of Vettel's super-soft time on soft tyres – and Valtteri Bottas out on ultra-softs.

Their first efforts were thwarted by yellow flags thrown for Felipe Massa's Williams, which stopped with an apparent gear-selection issue.

Bottas went quickest on his second run but lost time in the first sector and limited himself to a 1m24.176s.

Hamilton then blitzed that with a 1m23.620s, less than a tenth slower than the fastest ever lap of Albert Park – Vettel's 2011 pole time.

Mercedes' hopes of a second Friday practice one-two were dashed when Vettel squeezed ahead of Bottas on a 1m24.167s.

Kimi Raikkonen was a further four tenths adrift in the second Ferrari and only just ahead of the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, the last of sub-1m25s runners on a 1m24.650s.

Max Verstappen ran wide exiting Turn 12 on his first lap on ultra-soft tyres and the bumpy ride over the grass and gravel damaged the floor of his RB13. It meant his best time of the session, a 1m25.013s, was his earlier effort on super-softs.

Massa's problem allowed the impressive Carlos Sainz and Toro Rosso to claim best-of-the-rest honours behind the big three, with Romain Grosjean's Haas, Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg and Sainz's teammate Daniil Kvyat completing the top 10.

Fernando Alonso gave McLaren-Honda further encouragement in 12th, 2.3s off the pace, while Stoffel Vandoorne was one of the busiest drivers of the session as the alliance's recovery from a terrible pre-season continued.

An unknown problem for Kevin Magnussen limited the Haas driver to just six laps, while Marcus Ericsson caused a late yellow flag when he beached his Sauber in the Turn 6 gravel.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	34	1'23.620
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	35	1'24.167	0.547
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	34	1'24.176	0.556
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	30	1'24.525	0.905
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	27	1'24.650	1.030
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	8	1'25.013	1.393
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Renault	34	1'25.084	1.464
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	29	1'25.436	1.816
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	36	1'25.478	1.858
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Renault	39	1'25.493	1.873
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	35	1'25.591	1.971
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	19	1'26.000	2.380
13	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	37	1'26.145	2.525
14	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	6	1'26.331	2.711
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	29	1'26.498	2.878
16	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	27	1'26.525	2.905
17	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	33	1'26.608	2.988
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	30	1'26.919	3.299
19	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	8	1'27.279	3.659
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	4	1'27.549	3.929