Australian GP: Lewis Hamilton ups the ante in Practice Three

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton responded to Nico Rosberg’s clean-sweep of Friday practice times by setting a storming pace around Melbourne’s Albert Park in Practice Three.

There was little to choose between the Mercedes championship favourites on the opening day of the season, but on the soft-tyre simulations on Saturday morning the gap between the W06s grew to nearly a second in Hamilton's favour as the world champion uncorked an impressive lap of 1:27.867 to set the pace.

Rosberg’s earlier effort on the soft tyres had been somewhat less eye-catching and the German actually ended up behind countryman Sebastian Vettel in third place on the timesheet, as Ferrari suggested they could have the pace to challenge Williams for the second row in qualifying.

Williams pair Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were fourth and fifth with Raikkonen half a second back on team-mate Vettel in sixth.

With Rosberg's final lap likely to represent an anomaly in the context of the remainder of the weekend, the battle for the first pole of 2015 looks likely to be a direct contest between the German and Hamilton.

Earlier in P3 and both Mercedes drivers had unusually been struggling with the handling of the W06 on the medium tyres, with Hamilton running across the road twice and Rosberg also experiencing difficulties at the apex of corners.

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March 15, 2015

Those problems, however, were nothing compared to some of their would-be rivals as Red Bull struggled with reliability and McLaren, again, for a semblance of performance.

On the back of the setback of losing one of Daniel Ricciardo’s four penalty-free engines on Friday, Red Bull ran into more problems when the Australian conked out on the exit of the pitlane. Team-mate Daniil Kvyat’s RB11 then suffered a fire in its Renault engine, ruling the Russian out of the qualy-style runs.

But while Red Bull are in danger of slipping down the top ten order, McLaren could prop up Sunday’s grid after their two cars proved the slowest of all the 18 runners in P3.

Remaining three and a half seconds off the pace, McLaren may only be saved the embarrassment of the back row if Manor finally run for the first time this weekend in qualifying. The returning backmarker again missed the session while they continued to work through the teething problems which kept them on the sidelines on Friday.

Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes

Daniel Ricciardo's suffers engine blow on opening day of season

Daniel Ricciardo in action

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo will have just three penalty-free engines to complete the 2015 season with after it emerged that the Renault unit which failed in Melbourne practice cannot be repaired.

Ricciardo was forced to sit out Practice Two at the season-opening Australian GP on Friday after the team’s mechanics detected a power unit problem and were forced to change the internal combustion engine.

Although the team were initially confident that the engine could be repaired, Christian Horner confirmed to Sky Sports F1 at the start of Practice Three that the unit couldn’t be salvaged and now would be taken out of service.

“It is not helpful losing an engine after five laps, so that is one of his four he is down on the combustion side," the team principal said. "But it is what it is, it is the hand we have been dealt and hopefully the new unit won’t have a repeat failure.”

The loss of the engine represents an early blow to Ricciardo and Red Bull's seasons given that under the 2015 regulations drivers now only have access to four penalty-free engines for the 20-race campaign, one less than last season.

It therefore makes it almost inevitable that Ricciardo will take a penalty for a fifth engine earlier than expected during the course of the season, which would trigger an automatic 10-place grid drop.

Horner thinks it was optimistic to expect teams to manage 20 races on just four engines and thinks it could affect running during practice sessions.

“I think the bigger issue is going to be the lack of running yesterday. As mileage gets tigther teams are going to be more frugal, particularly on a Friday morning.

“To be honest it is a stupid situation and a situation I argued about to no avail last year. We take a fifth engine on a world tour anyway, why not just use it for Friday’s. It is stupid coming all this way then sitting in a garage and not running out on track.

"But that is what the team in silver wanted - and not the one with the Japanese engines."

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg predict 'a big battle' in Australia

Hamilton: Work to do

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are braced are for another ‘close battle’ for supremacy at Mercedes after the Silver Arrows dominated practice for the Australian GP.

By the narrowest of margins, Rosberg headed a Mercedes one-two in bothPractice One and Practice Two as the world champions delivered emphatic proof of their superiority in the first official sessions of the new 2015 season.

With the W06 boasting what appears to be a one-second pace advantage over their nearest challengers, Ferrari and Williams, a Mercedes car seems certain to win Sunday’s win provided it remains reliable. Far less certain, however, is whether it will be Hamilton or Rosberg who crosses the line first.

“It's as tight as always, it is always going to be close between us,” predicted world champion Hamilton after being pipped by Rosberg by one-tenth of a second in the afternoon session.

The German was also fractionally faster than Hamilton in winter testing and, after out-qualifying his team-mate in 2014 by a 12-7 scoreline, will start Saturday’s eagerly-anticipated shoot-out as the favourite to claim pole position.

"It's better than being second quickest!" said Rosberg after his Friday double. "It won't make that much difference because there is so little between us but it's been a great day for the team. We've definitely shown we have a strong car. With Lewis, it's close, he's driving well, it's going to be a big battle. I need to nail car set-up because I am not quite there yet. It's a particular challenge here."

Nico Rosberg: Topped both of Friday's sessions

Hamilton also confirmed he had yet to find the sweet-spot of his new car, but the relief for both drivers will have been the outstanding performance of the W06. After the smoke and mirrors action of winter testing, Friday practice served as undisputable proof that the best have got better between seasons and Mercedes remain very much out in front.

“Everyone at the factory has done an incredible job and to arrive here and have such a competitive car is an amazing feeling,” acknowledged Hamilton.

Behind Mercedes, however, another close battle appears to be brewing with Williams and Ferrari vying to be the best of the rest. Although Felipe Massa missed the afternoon running due to an engine change and Valtteri Bottas finished a distant fourth in the timesheets, the resurgent Williams team remain confident they can challenge for a podium this weekend.

“It was a good day. Although Felipe had an issue, on my side it was nice and smooth,” Bottas told Sky Sports F1. “We will see where we are tomorrow. As a team, we really want to make a step forward and that is to be right behind Mercedes. It is possible but it is going to be really close – Ferrari look to be in good shape and Red Bull are an unknown.”

The former world champions endured a torrid day, with newcomer Daniil Kvyat over two seconds adrift of Rosberg’s benchmark and Daniel Ricciardo, like Massa, forced to sit out the afternoon session.

"Hopefully we can get close to Ferrari," said Red Bull boss Christian Horner. "That gap of within a second of Mercedes looks achievable. I don’t think we’ve seen Williams’ full hand yet but I think that is what we will be pitching for."

McLaren facing fight to avoid the drop in Austalian GP qualifying

McLaren are braced for the challenge of simply finishing Sunday’s Australian GP with Jenson Button hoping the team can qualify ahead of the back row.

On the back of a troubled winter with the MP4-30 when reliability and pace repeatedly proved problematic, McLaren experienced a trying first day on track in Melbourne.

In P1 Button and Kevin Magnussen completed just 13 laps between them before the team ran into data control issues with the Honda power unit, while P2 saw the Dane crash out early and the Briton’s car struck down by a loss of power.

Amid the latest bout of unreliability, the team finished well down the timesheets with Button’s best lap a massive 3.7 seconds off Mercedes’ leading pace.

Asked how much of a concern reliability remained ahead of Sunday’s 58-lap race, Button replied: “It’s always going to be in the back of your mind as we haven’t done a race distance yet. This is still learning for us.

“We are doing the best job we can, getting our heads down and focusing on getting the best out of what we have this weekend. I don’t have any real targets in terms of finishing; there’s a lot of data gathering needed tomorrow.

“Qualifying will be tricky I’m sure. Getting out there for as many laps as we can in qualifying will be tricky.”

Put to him that the ignominy of the back row of the grid may be beckoning, Button said: “I’m hoping it won’t be the last row of the grid – hopefully 20 cars will run!

“But it’s not going to be easy. We all know that and that’s the important thing. We are all working as one and not pointing any fingers. We are solving the problems as we go. Hopefully we’ll be competitive sooner rather than later.”

Admitting that the pace gap to the non-Mercedes pack alone was a “big chunk” of time, Button added: “It’s always going to be difficult this time of the year for us. Winter testing was difficult and so it’s not suddenly going to be amazing at the first race of the season.

“We’ve just got to get our heads down and do the best we can: it’s all about learning. Also about running through a race weekend. It’s something we haven’t done as one team, as McLaren-Honda, so there’s a lot of us to work through.”

Team-mate Magnussen, standing in for the recuperating Fernando Alonso this weekend, was on track for just 11 laps in total with his crash in the early minutes of P2 bringing an early end to his day.

“There was nothing on the track, I just tried to push the braking, lost the rear on the entry and it snapped in a difficult time. That’s when it pointed towards the wall and I couldn’t do anything,” he explained.

The young Dane, who finished second on his F1 debut here last season, is at least hoping McLaren can scrape through to the second stage of qualifying.

“There are not as many people on the grid and I think we do have a chance of getting into Q2 if everything goes right,” he said. “Maybe Sauber and Force India are in reach.”

Australian GP: Mercedes dominate as Nico Rosberg sets P1 pace

World champions Mercedes gave an early glimpse of their expected sustained advantage at the front of the Formula 1 field by dominating the first practice session of 2015 in Melbourne.

After an impressive winter testing with the new W06, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton set the pace by over a second from the rest of the field in the opening forays at Albert Park, with Rosberg’s 1:29.557 already two seconds faster than the corresponding P1 benchmark from last year.

Rosberg, 0.029s quicker than his defending world champion team-mate Hamilton, was 1.191 seconds clear of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, the team thought most likely to challenge Mercedes in the early weeks of the season.

The reunited McLaren-Honda partnership are not expecting any challenge from their all-new MP4-30 to come until later the season and the early signs from Melbourne are that the reliability problems which plagued the team's pre-season have not yet completely disappeared.

Although Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso's stand-in Kevin Magnussen took to the track in the early stages of P1, the pair had completed just 13 laps between them when McLaren were forced to call an early halt to their session with a mechanical problem.

"We've brought the curtain down early on our #FP1 running to check over a small mechanical issue with a power-unit component," the team tweeted after their cars ended up over four seconds off the pace.

Australian bailiffs are reportedly at the Melbourne Circuit after representatives of Giedo van der Garde issued a summons.

Still, McLaren's session was significantly better than those of returning Manor and embattled Sauber as neither of the backmarker teams completed a single lap.

While Manor were getting on top of software issues with their modified 2014 car - delays which could also rule them out of P2 - Sauber seemingly chose not to run either of their cars in the session amid the team's legal dispute with Giedo van der Garde.

Having won his case against his former employers in the local courts on Wednesday over claims that they reneged on a contract to drive in 2015, Van der Garde appeared in the Albert Park paddock on Friday morning. Although he completed a seat fit in the C34 in Ericsson's overalls, the superlicence he needs to compete has yet to been rubber-stamped. The Dutchman's legal team remain in the Supreme Court having launched a Contempt of Court Application against Sauber.

Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson spent a good deal of the session strapped into their cars before eventually climbing out again. Meantime, bailiffs gathered outside the paddock awaiting orders to start seizing Sauber's assets. Assuming the team are in contempt of court, team principal Monisha Kaltenborn could face a fine or even a prison sentence.

Only 16 cars therefore completed any running in the season's opening session, although Romain Grosjean's laps can hardly be considered representative after the Frenchman experienced problems with his Lotus E23 floor.

Ahead of the first practice session in Melbourne, Giedo van der Garde turned up in the paddock, wearing Sauber overalls, but it's still unclear who will be

With a number of their usual midfield rivals experiencing fraught build-ups to the new season, Toro Rosso are being tipped to perform strongly this weekend and their all-rookie duo of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen ended P1 in impressive fourth and sixth places respectively on the timesheet.

Indeed, the Red Bull junior team outshone the 'A' squad as the former world champions could only muster 10th and 11th places in the order. Home favourite Daniel Ricciardo was heard complaing about the Renault-powered RB11's driveability after spinning into the grass at Turn 15.

2015 Australian GP Practice One timesheet

1) Nico Rosberg, Mercedes 1:29.557

2) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:29.586

3) Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:30.748

4) Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:31.014

5) Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:31.029

6) Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso 1:31.067

7) Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:31.188

8) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:31.310

9) Pastor Maldonado, Lotus 1:31.451

10) Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:31.570

11) Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:32.073

12) Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:32.247

13) Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:32.261

14) Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:34.542

15) Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1:34.785

16) Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 2:17.782

17) Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, No time

18) Felipe Nasr, Sauber, No time

19) Will Stevens, Manor, No time

20) Roberto Merhi, Manor, No time

Sky Sports F1 will be broadcasting every race in 2015, starting with live and exclusive coverage of the Australian GP on March 15. The race starts at 5am UK Time on Sunday

Nico Rosberg warns Mercedes are still the team to beat in 2015

A confident Nico Rosberg has warned Mercedes' rivals that the world champions are still the team to beat on the eve of the new F1 season.

The Silver Arrows romped to a dominant drivers’ and constructors’ championship double in 2014 and their pace once again looked ominous during pre-season testing. Such was their advantage at the Circuit de Catalunya last month that Mercedes were able to run on soft tyres and still comfortably beat their rivals on the quicker supersoft compound.

"It's fair to say we are the best in F1 at the moment as a team, and we are the ones to beat,” Rosberg told reporters in Melbourne.

"We're keeping a very close eye on the opposition, but we're confident with the job we've done and we believe in ourselves. We have a strong team now.

"The others have been pushing hard - some of them making huge steps - so we look forward to seeing where we are on Saturday, but we are optimistic."

The combined timesheet from the two Barcelona tests

Rosberg lost out to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the fight for individual honours last year, three times seeing an advantage of 25 points or more overhauled by the Briton, but has been working hard to make amends in 2015.

"The fact is Lewis was a little bit stronger last year," Rosberg admitted.

"He's been working on himself over the winter, I've been working on myself a little bit more, but I've been pushing hard.

"I'm sure I'm not at my peak F1 performance yet, and as I'm 29 I've a little bit of ROOM LEFT to become even stronger."

Sky Sports F1’s Simon Lazenby and Martin Brundle look ahead to this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

Rosberg has identified Sunday as the area where he needs to improve after out-qualifying Hamilton 12-7 last year, but losing the race battle by the reverse scoreline.

"The aim this season is to keep qualifying the same, which is an important base for me to build on," he said.

"That would then give me a lot of hope, and then after that the aim is to improve a little in the racing."

Sky Sports F1 will be broadcasting every race in 2015, starting with live and exclusive coverage of the Australian GP on March 15. The race starts at 5am UK Time on Sunday.

Daniil Kvyat is focused ahead of Red Bull debut at Australian GP

Daniil Kvyat: Focused ahead of Red Bull debut

Daniil Kvyat says he has “no expectations” ahead of his Red Bull debut at the Australian GP although he thinks his new team's latest car “looks promising”.

The 20-year-old Russian was speaking in the Melbourne paddock on Thursday, almost 12 months after becoming the youngest driver to score points on his F1 debut.

"No expectations," said Kvyat, who sounds particularly focused ahead of the new season. “Just try to do my best and try to take the best out of myself and the package that we have. That’s the best thing you can do; expectations…they don’t really help.”

Red Bull are shaping up in the chasing pack behind Mercedes. Precisely where will start to be revealed this weekend, although Kvyat said he was happy with progress in pre-season testing.

“If you look at 2014 it was like a paradise. I think we did our best; we squeezed everything out of our programmes through the winter and we are where we are now,” he said.

“You always want to have something more but you cannot have everything at the same time. You have to adapt to what you have, and what we have now is looking promising.”

Regarding Red Bull’s place in the competitive order, he added: “We all hope it’s as high as possible, but we don’t know until the first qualifying or first race.

No help needed: With new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo

“This weekend will open a lot of things for us; we know more or less where we are but it’s too early yet to make any conclusions.”

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo finished second on his own Red Bull debut 12 months ago, but was later disqualified for a fuel flow infringement.

The Australian went on to have a stellar season, winning three times and beating Sebastian Vettel, who Kvyat has replaced.

Asked whether he could emulate Ricciardo, Kvyat said: “It all depends on the circumstances. You just do your best and see how you adapt.

“It’s hard just to say, ‘It’s going to happen tomorrow’ or ‘It’s going to happen in one month’. You just have to be realistic.”

Kvyat also said that he didn’t need Ricciardo’s help to settle in at his new team. “Everyone is focused on their own thing, I think, and in Formula 1 you can’t count on someone to help you,” he said. “I count on myself and that’s it.”

His own replacement at Toro Rosso, Max Verstappen, could take the record for youngest points scorer provided the 17-year-old finishes in the top ten on Sunday.

So what does Kvyat think about that? “I have no idea. Once again, it’s something that’s not really my business. It will not really help me.”

But it seems that no man is an island after all. “I hope that he will do his best,” Kvyat added.

Sky Sports F1 will be broadcasting every race in 2015, starting with live and exclusive coverage of the Australian GP on March 15. The race starts at 5am UK Time on Sunday.

Kevin Magnussen: McLaren’s expectations low for start of 2015

Kevin Magnussen - who is standing in for Fernando Alonso at McLaren - has confirmed he’s not had any contact with his team-mate and is uncertain which one

Kevin Magnussen admits McLaren’s expectations are low for early 2015 after finishing bottom of the pre-season timesheets in testing.

The Dane will deputise in Melbourne for the man who took his race seat at the Woking squad this season following Fernando Alonso’s crash during testing that resulted in the Spaniard suffering concussion and temporary memory loss.

Magnussen set McLaren’s fastest time of pre-season, but the time was still nearly 2.5 seconds slower than Mercedes on the same tyres. Worryingly for McLaren, it is thought the Silver Arrows were still hiding their true pace, whereas Magnussen admits he was running on low fuel.

“I didn’t get as many laps as I thought I’d get. I would have got a maximum of 150 laps in a day if everything runs perfectly, but I got nearly 40 laps and nearly all of them were low fuel so at least I am pretty prepared for that,” Magnussen said in the FIA Drivers’ Press Conference for the season-opening Australian GP.

“I haven’t felt the car on high fuel yet so it will be interesting to see how it feels, but I have driven race cars before, it is not a completely different thing. It is a different car, but it should be okay.”

Kevin Magnussen signs autographs for the fans in Melbourne

Given McLaren’s unreliability woes with their new Honda power unit, even getting to the finish in Australia would represent an achievement with the MP4-30 failing to complete a race simulation during testing. 

“I would say quite low,” Magnussen said of the team’s expectations for early 2015. 

“We are obviously struggling with reliability and making the car run for a long time, but also this is a new start for McLaren and it is going to take time. But it is the right direction that the team has decided to go and I think it has a bright future ahead of it. It is going to take time, but I am sure they will get there.”

Alonso is aiming to return to the cockpit for the Malaysian Grand Prix in two weeks, but Magnussen has had little interaction with the Spaniard.

“I haven’t been in contact with him, only on Twitter when he said ‘good luck’ and I said ‘thanks’, he revealed. “I haven’t asked him how he is feeling, I hear he is going well. I am just focussing on this race and wishing him all the best.”

And Magnussen admits he has been giving no indication if he will be required to race at Sepang:  “You’ll have to wait. I am not the right person to ask, I don’t know.”

The fastest lap by each team during the two Barcelona tests

Sky Sports F1 will be broadcasting every race in 2015, starting with live and exclusive coverage of the Australian GP on March 15. The race starts at 5am UK Time on Sunday.

Jenson Button: Giedo van der Garde driving is not a safety concern

Jenson Button says Giedo van der Garde driving in Melbourne is not a safety concern and has expressed his disappointment that Sauber used that claim as a defence in their legal dispute.

Van der Garde took the Swiss team to the Supreme Court in Melbourne arguing that they had reneged on a deal for him to race in 2015.

The court agreed and Sauber’s subsequent appeal against Wednesday morning’s ruling was dismissed on Thursday.

Sauber’s lawyer argued in court that allowing van der Garde to race would be "reckless and dangerous" given his lack of testing and would put other drivers and support staff at an "unacceptable" risk.

Craig Slater reports from Melbourne to discuss the news that Sauber have lost their legal battle with former reserve driver Giedo van der Garde.

However, the most experienced driver on the F1 grid has no qualms about racing alongside the Dutchman who started 19 races for Caterham in 2013.

“The bit that surprises me most is the comments from Sauber saying it is a safety issue with him driving the car,” Button told Sky Sports News HQ.

“For me it is a shame that they have gone in that direction, because safety is always a concern in motorsport and we shouldn’t be throwing it around lightly. Personally him driving the car is not a safety issue. I think it is unfair to use that against Giedo.”

The court case has completely overshadowing Sauber’s build-up to the race, and their former driver Nico Hulkenberg isn't shocked the team have found themselves embroiled in the dispute.

“Not super surprised no," the German told Sky Sports News HQ when asked if the situation surprised him after his experience with the team in 2013.

“I think it is very fair what he does. He is just fighting for what he deserves and what they have told him and promised him.”

Hulkenberg's current teammate Sergio Perez has also voiced his support of van der Garde’s stance.

“It shouldn’t be the way people should be treating drivers. They should respect drivers,” Perez told reporters in the Melbourne paddock on Thursday.

“A driver can be quite powerful. We are working here. We need this work and this career, so it’s not fair when people are not treating you the way you have to be treated.

“It doesn’t matter if you are a driver or an engineer, everyone has to be treated fairly and if there’s a contract it should be respected because there are rules and they have to be followed.”

Perez said it wasn’t uncommon for drivers to leave teams in far from favourable circumstances.

“Sometimes in Formula 1 you hear drivers of having a contract with the teams and they just get kicked off [the line-up], or drivers who are owed money from three or four years [previously],” the Mexican explained.

“I think Giedo is a good example: a driver should stand up for their rights. I see it as a good thing for not only drivers but anyone who works in Formula 1, who should be treated like any other worker in the world.”

Another ex-Sauber driver, meanwhile, Felipe Massa also expressed his dismay at the situation surrounding his old team.

While stressing he didn’t know the ins and outs of the case, the Williams driver said: “I think it’s sad, to be honest, to see what’s going on with the team to have three drivers signed for the championship.

“Maybe they already had one driver signed and then signed with another two drivers. I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t like to say something that’s not correct, but it’s sad. To see that on the first race of the season is really not nice and sad for the sport.

“Formula 1 is not in the best moment compared to what we saw in the past and then you still see this situation. It’s not nice.”

Sky Sports F1 will be broadcasting every race in 2015, starting with live and exclusive coverage of the Australian GP on March 15. The race starts at 5am UK Time on Sunday.