Hamilton fastest in second practice, but top teams appear close
Rain expected across qualifying and the race
Bottas, Ocon & Alonso all go off track
Image source, .The Brits have historically done well in Australia, claiming 11 wins in 33 years. In contrast, the hosts are still waiting for a home winner.
Will this be Daniel Ricciardo's year?
Image source, Getty ImagesAnd with that, it's time for us to go!
Lewis Hamilton was quickest but Red Bull and Ferrari's performance suggested Mercedes may not be as dominant as many people thought.
Throw in a bucket load of rain tomorrow and qualifying could be a cracker!
We'll be back at 02:30 GMT for build up to final practice. Hopefully see you then!
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Melbourne
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton led Red Bull's Max Verstappen in second practice at the season-opening Australian GP.
The top three teams appeared closely matched, with just 0.283secs separating Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.
Hamilton was 0.127 seconds clear of Verstappen, although the world champion looked as if he had more potential had he not lost time on his quickest lap.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third, from the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
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A problem for Lance Stroll right at the end of the session after a practice start.
"Shall I stop the car," he asks.
He is told to employ maximum cooling and to be slow as he makes his way back to the pits.
In the end he does go for stopping the car.
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Jennie Gow
BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter
My thoughts are that this is going to be good. Red Bull are bit spikier than we thought they might be, Mercedes look perky but I don't think they are as dominant as people thought they might be.
Game on.
Lewis Hamilton looking on it once again but Red Bull are right up there with Max Verstappen splitting the Mercedes.
Also, superb effort from Romain Grosjean in the Haas. He was sixth quickest, just seven tenths off Hamilton's time.
Image source, F1.com
Lewis Hamilton finishes quickest in second practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
Image source, EPAIt's busy on the track with just a couple of minutes remaining. No improvements likely, with the focus on long runs.
Max Verstappen never passes up the opportunity to race as he dives down the inside of Pierre Gasly. Both cars run very close but the Red Bull just about squeezes through.
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Into the final 10 minutes of the session as Lewis Hamilton moves onto supersofts.
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If you are just waking up in Europe, here's a quick summary of what's going down.
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Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver
The only thing I can think that could be is tyre warm up on the out lap. I can't imagine anything else you would want to have warm right now in the middle of a long run in sweltering heat.
Max Verstappen is told to either deactivate the warm button or the warm butter. While the former makes more sense (sort of) the latter would be much more intriguing.
Image source, Getty ImagesAndrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Melbourne
Hamilton is quickest on these race simulation runs but is just under a tenth of a second quicker than Verstappen on average. Raikkonen is almost the same lap time Verstappen but Vettel is struggling. He is four or five tenths off those top three drivers.
Valtteri Bottas fancies a change of scenery again, this time swapping gravel for grass as he goes wide at Turn 1.
Image source, Reuters"Default 34. Urgent," McLaren tell Fernando Alonso.
Doesn't sound good...
Daniel Ricciardo hasn't been back out to finish his qualifying simulation run, that's because his Red Bull is having a front suspension change.
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