Hamilton fastest again, Mercedes dominates FP2 in Australia

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in the second free practice session for the Australian GP where Mercedes was eight tenths faster than their nearest competitor Red Bull while Ferrari was only fifth and ninth fastest.

Hamilton set his fastest lap of the day (1:22.600), which was only 1.5 seconds slower than last year’s pole position, at the half of the second free practice on soft Pirelli tyres when the track was still not at its best and still remained fastest to the end, 0.048 seconds ahead of Bottas.

Verstappen was again fast at Red Bull Honda in third place, but with a big eight tenth of a second gap to Mercedes with his best time set 15 minutes before the end as the track was in better shape.

Gasly was much closer to his team-mate than in first free practice (0.042 s behind) and finished fourth fastest in front of Vettel in Ferrari who complained about the behavior of his car in the first and fourth corners of Albert Park.

Vettel has set his best lap 1:23.473 on soft tyres and Raikkonen repeated his top 6 finish from FP1 for Alfa Romeo, one tenth behind Vettel.

Renault drivers were faster than in first practice session and finished seventh and eighth fastest – Hulkenberg was only seven hundredths of a second faster than his new team-mate Ricciardo.

Leclerc was just ninth fastest in second Ferrari, 1.154 seconds behind Hamilton, but only three tenths behind the third-placed Verstappen. The new Ferrari driver had a small spin at the Turn 4 exit kerb, but managed to continue without damage.

Grosjean was faster than Magnussen in 9th place for Haas while Dane was 12th fastest with less than two tenths behind after being quicker than Grosjean in FP1.

Kvyat was again the faster Toro Rosso driver in 11th place, splitting up Haas drivers, and Stroll was again faster than Perez in 13th place for the Racing Point.

Sainz ended FP2 in 14th place, just like in the first free practice, in front of Giovinazzi, Perez, Albon and Norris.

Williams remained cemented in the last two places, like in FP1, but in the second free practice Russell was two tenths of a second faster than Kubica.

2019 AUSTRALIAN GP FP2 RESULTS