Lewis Hamilton says the closeness of the front pack in the opening practice sessions in Melbourne is “exciting” heading into the first race of the season.
Mercedes continued where they left off at the end of 2017, with Hamilton finishing at the top of the timesheets in both FP1 and FP2, further underlying the team’s pace in winter testing.
However, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen came within a tenth of a second of Hamilton’s fastest time in the second session as the top five cars were separated by just half a second.
With the Briton aiming to match Juan Manuel Fangio’s five world championships this year, Hamilton feels Mercedes has begun 2018 on “the right foot”.
“Coming to the first race, you really have no idea what it’s going to be like,” Hamilton said.
“You don’t how you’re going to feel physically, you don’t know how the tyres are going to react to the circuit. But we started on the right foot today, we got through everything we needed.
“It closed up a little bit in FP2 in terms of the gap between us all, but that’s exciting. It’s more challenging for me to try and eke out a little more from the car.”
Pirelli has developed softer rubber for this season in a bid to force two-stop races, but Hamilton revealed blistering doesn’t seem an issue on the Albert Park surface. However, the 33-year-old is wary of a threat of rain for the remainder of the weekend that could make for an unpredictable grid order.
“The tyres definitely didn’t seem to have the same issue that we had in Barcelona where they were blistering, so it felt a lot more normal,” he added.
“Obviously the car is quicker here than it was last year, so it feels better everywhere. Turns 11 and 12 are crazy, we’re not even braking into that corner, it’s insane.
“It’s going to rain tomorrow and on Sunday as far as I’m aware. I’ve not driven in the rain yet on these tyres, so that’ll be interesting.”
