Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in the practice round of Melbourne F1 and the British driver was all praise for the Mercedes car. This is the opening grand prix of 2017 season in Australia. Hamilton topped both pratice sessions and his Mercedes partner Valtteri Bottas came second in morning and third on afternoon which is a good return for Mercedes overall.

Hamilton was full clear and half a second clear of Sebastian Vettel, who represent Ferrari. This clearly says the team is adapting well to the changed rules this season. Ferrari is right up and Red Bull is catching up too. But, the progress of Mercedes is undoubtedly the best.

The new rules was just to make the cars more faster and Hamilton finished his lap in first session in 1m 24.220sec, which is set on ultra soft tyres and was 5.5sec faster than the same last year. Ferrari was the quickest while testing but they played it down in the practice round with Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen being over second back from Hamilton's time and using harder compound of tyre.

Vettel improved in the later half but couldn't cope with Mercedes even after using ultra soft tyres. Raikkonen was also better than previous finishing fourth. A satisfactory outcome for Hamilton and the whole Mercedes team in general.

The qualifying round is on Friday and Lewis Hamilton will have confidence to take it on. There was a speculation that Mercedes's gap at the top might get slimmer with the advent of new rules but by this result today, it seems they started well as they left off last time. Hamilton has been in great form, not only in quick sectors on soft rubber but also in long races.

Meanwhile, engine struggles for of McLaren have marred their testing and had not improved with the arrival of new F1 season. Fernando Alonso finished 14th best in the first session and improved barely to 12th next session.

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