Sebastian Vettel top in wet-dry final practice

Ahead of the 209th Grand Prix of his Formula One career, Lewis Hamilton will grip his steering wheel knowing he has already activated the most important of controls. Hamilton, meanwhile, seeks a record-extending 73rd pole and a 63rd GP win. “I’m so happy with that lap”, Hamilton said. “It was such a nice lap”, he said.

Hamilton said: “I can assure you we don’t have a party mode”.

Hamilton had registered a pace-setting time of 1:22.051 after the first runs as he, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen were covered by just 0.061s.

Last season Hamilton was behind the whole way up to the mid-season break, yet still won the championship comfortably.

“I don’t think the best athletes want to put the others off so they perform worse. But everyone else is hating it”.

Mercedes are attempting to secure a fifth consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championship to match the record set by Ferrari between 2000 and 2004 and with the vehicle looking immensely strong this is exactly the start they would have wanted.

Bottas briefly veered off the track going into Turn 2 and then lost his traction, sliding into a wall at high speed.

The driver was declared OK after a routine medical check, but his auto was completely ruined, with both the front and back wheels on the right side hanging off.

The red flag was waved as the television broadcast showed Mercedes boss Toto Wolff bowing his head in disappointment back in the team garage.

The sporting regulations have also been tweaked with drivers only allowed to have three engines for the season – this is challenging the teams to ensure that reliability is counted with the aim of reducing costs. So, that’s why it’s a bit pointless to come here and say that you’ll blow everyone away. “You would think that with the results that we’ve had over the years that this would be the norm, but it was just as intense, my heart is racing”.

Since then former team-mate Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel have claimed victories, although Hamilton claimed pole position in each of those years.

“But I do hope that I can make a bigger step than the others”, he said. “Obviously it’s hard to say how much everybody will improve”.

The Melbourne stop is one of the most popular on the F1 calendar, and there’s always a giddy sense of excitement and anticipation as it’s the first race. That’s the same as it had been at this point a year ago, when Vettel went on to win the race. “But we’ve seen many times now – 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 – that usually on Sunday things get a little bit closer”.

Vettel again volleyed back, saying “He is free to have a party tonight and hopefully Kimi and I will have a party tomorrow”. Magnussen, Grosjean and Hulkenberg will each move up a space on the grid due to Ricciardo’s penalty.

Mutual respect was traded in for resentment past year when the pair bumped wheels at an explosive Azerbaijan Grand Prix, prompting anger from Mercedes’ Hamilton.

“I do believe a lot of their problems were individual gremlins that can be easily ironed out – it’s their first time with a new engine partner”, he said.

“It looks cumbersome – it doesn’t look fantastic, but we will get used to it very quickly”, said Edwards.

In the second test, the Mercedes drivers completed over 1000 laps ahead of Ferrari and Toro Rosso.