Hamilton fifth in Melbourne with Leclerc fastest

Lewis Hamilton made his F1 debut in Melbourne in 2007

Australian Grand Prix

Venue: Albert Park, Melbourne Dates: 14 March-16 March Race start: 04:00 GMT on Sunday, 16 March

Coverage: Live radio commentary of practice and qualifying on BBC 5 Sports Extra, race live on BBC Radio 5 Live. Live text updates on BBC Sport website and app

Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest for his new Ferrari team as the Formula 1 season began at the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was 0.42 seconds slower than his team-mate Charles Leclerc, who set the pace ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in Friday practice at Albert Park.

Leclerc was 0.124 seconds ahead of Piastri, who hails from Melbourne and edged Norris by 0.017secs.

Hamilton was slower than Leclerc all day - 0.61secs off as the Ferraris went third and 12th fastest in the first session, and also about 0.1secs down on average on their race-simulation runs late in the second hour's running.

The seven-time champion complained over the radio that he was struggling to turn the car.

Yuki Tsunoda's Racing Bull was the midfield interloper in the top order in fourth, and his rookie team-mate Isack Hadjar was in sixth, also ahead of Max Verstappen in the senior Red Bull team.

The world champion looked to be struggling in Melbourne. His best time was set on the medium tyre - he aborted his soft-tyre qualifying simulation run when he took three bites trying to turn into Turn Three and ran wide on the exit.

Verstappen said: "The balance wasn't even completely out, no massive or major problems, but somehow the grip just wasn't coming alive, just struggling on all four tyres really on sector one and the last sector and that means of course that we are not really up there at the moment.

"It will be a bit hard to fix, but it's also nothing I didn't expect when I arrived here, so I am not positively or negatively surprised with the pace we are showing."

Verstappen came to Melbourne expecting not to be able to match the McLarens for raw pace, but rain is forecast for the race on Sunday, which is likely to put him back in the fight for victory, given his excellence in wet conditions.

Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg was eighth, ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and George Russell's Mercedes.

On the race-simulation runs late in the session, once they were corrected for tyre and fuel weight, Leclerc appeared to be the fastest, a smidge ahead of Norris, followed by Hamilton, Piastri, Russell and Verstappen.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz, who impressed by setting second fastest time in the first session, was mixing it close to the top teams on race fuel, averaging between the pace of Leclerc and Hamilton.

Mercedes did their race runs on the hard tyres, while the other top teams used the mediums, so their averages cannot be compared. Russell was significantly quicker than rookie team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Russell said Mercedes were competitive on the medium and hard tyres, but not yet on the soft compound that will be used for qualifying.

"It was a really up and down day," he said. "Every time we had the medium or hard tyre on, we were in the top two. Then we put the soft on and we didn't go much quicker. Clearly there is a bit of pace in the car and we need to understand the tyres."

Oliver Bearman did not get out on track in second practice after crashing his Haas in FP1

The session was incident-free, other than a bounce through the gravel at Turn Six for Hulkenberg.

That contrasted with the first session, which was punctuated by two red flags, one for a heavy crash for Oliver Bearman in the Haas.

The 19-year-old Briton, in his first full season after three substitute appearances in 2024, lost control in Turn 10 and badly damaged his car, which the team could not repair in time to get him out on track to run in the second session.

Off track, there was a significant development after it emerged that all 10 teams have now signed their commercial agreements with F1, committing them to the sport until 2030.

Before their current deals run out at the end of this season, they still have to negotiate their contracts with governing body the FIA, which may take some time.