Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace in the opening round of 2017 Formula 1 World Championship, but Sebastian Vettel managed to split two Mercedes drivers with a half a second gap to Hamilton in second place.
Hamilton beat his 2016 pole position time (1:23.8) comfortably on ultrasoft tyres despite more to come from his Mercedes W08 and track still being dirty. Briton said he is ‘99% happy’ with his progress so far while Vettel and Raikkonen felt there is much more to come from Ferrari SF70H after its balance was far from ideal.
Red Bulls were fifth and sixth with Ricciardo again faster than Verstappen who went of the track in his ultrasoft run and damaged the floor of his Red Bull RB13 with just eight laps completed.
Sainz was seventh fastest for Toro Rosso after Massa had gearbox issues while Grosjean and Hulkenberg were eight and ninth fastest, just like in first free practice. Kvyat rounded up top10 in front of Perez in Force India and Alonso in McLaren Honda.
AUSTRALIAN GP SECOND FREE PRACTICE
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:23.620 | 34 | |
| 2 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:24.167 | 0.547 | 35 |
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:24.176 | 0.556 | 34 |
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:24.525 | 0.905 | 30 |
| 5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull TAG Heuer | 1:24.650 | 1.030 | 27 |
| 6 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull TAG Heuer | 1:25.013 | 1.393 | 8 |
| 7 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso Renault | 1:25.084 | 1.464 | 34 |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:25.436 | 1.816 | 29 |
| 9 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:25.478 | 1.858 | 36 |
| 10 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso Renault | 1:25.493 | 1.873 | 39 |
| 11 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Force India Mercedes | 1:25.591 | 1.971 | 35 |
| 12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren Honda | 1:26.000 | 2.380 | 19 |
| 13 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India Mercedes | 1:26.145 | 2.525 | 37 |
| 14 | 19 | Felipe Massa | WilliamsMercedes | 1:26.331 | 2.711 | 6 |
| 15 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber Ferrari | 1:26.498 | 2.878 | 29 |
| 16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams Mercedes | 1:26.525 | 2.905 | 27 |
| 17 | 2 | S.Vandoorne | McLaren Honda | 1:26.608 | 2.988 | 33 |
| 18 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber Ferrari | 1:26.919 | 3.299 | 30 |
| 19 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 1:27.279 | 3.659 | 8 |
| 20 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1:27.549 | 3.929 | 4 |
GALLERY
