Hamilton leaves rivals in the dust

MELBOURNE: Lewis Hamilton  sizzled in the opening practice  sessions at the Australian Grand  Prix as he sent an ominous message  to his rivals for the newFormula  One season on Friday.  The triple world champion  bossed the field in the afternoon  run to hold a half-second gap  over Ferrari title rival Sebastian  Vettel and his new Mercedes  teammate Valtteri Bottas.  Hamilton followed up his  field-leading fastest lap of  1:24.220 in the first session with  a blistering 1:23.620 around Albert  Park in the late afternoon.  It was around one-tenth of a  second off Vettel’s record lap  here of 1:23.529, posted for Red  Bull in qualifying ahead of his  2011 race victory.  Ferrari were expected to  press Hamilton and the Mercedes  team after superior times  in pre-season testing, but on the  evidence of the opening two sessions  Hamilton again looked the  driver to beat in Sunday’s race.  Hamilton’s time was more  than three seconds faster than  his best lap in last year’s corresponding  free practice here.  Finland’s Bottas slotted  smoothly into the Mercedes  team environment with a best  lap of 1:24.176.  Ferrari improved on their  opening practice with Vettel unleashing  the second best lap time  in FP2 with 1:24.167 while teammate  Kimi Raikkonenwas fourth  with 1:24.525.  The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo  andMax Verstappenwere  over a second behind Hamilton  and half-a-second off Vettel’s Ferrari.“  Daniel’s not quite got the  balance that he wants. I think a  couple of changes we’ve made  on the car over lunch he’s not  liked so we’re going back on  them now,” team boss Christian  Horner said.  “Hopefully we can get a sensible  long run-in. You can see  Lewis has probably got four or  five-tenths on the field but after  that it could be pretty tight.”  The second session was  stopped after a big crash for Renault’s  Jolyon Palmer, who lost  the rear of his car on the last corner  and spun into the barriers.  Palmermissed the remainder  of the session, in a blow to his  preparations for the weekend  race.  Brazilian Felipe Massa  stopped his Williams car at Turn  11 after reporting he could not  engage gears, and walked back  to the team garage.  The troubled McLaren team  had no on-track breakdowns on  the opening day with Fernando  Alonso finishing in a respectable  12th place. —AFP