Australian Grand Prix 2017 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's F1 Practice

Lewis Hamilton laid down a marker ahead of Sunday's season-opening Formula One Australian Grand Prix as he topped the timesheet by more than half a second on the first day of practice in Melbourne, Australia. 

The Englishman posted a lap time of one minute, 23.620 seconds in his Mercedes in second practice to finish 0.547 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel on Friday.

Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate, Valtterri Bottas, finished the day just 0.009 seconds back from Vettel in third, while Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and local favourite Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull completed the top five. 

Hamilton also finished fastest in Friday's morning session in a Mercedes one-two. 

Here are the full timings from Friday's afternoon session, per Formula 1:

Recap

Much of the talk ahead of the season-opener in Australia was that Mercedes would have a real battle on their hands in 2017 following three seasons of total dominance.

Hamilton claimed ahead of the first practice session of the season that Ferrari had the quickest car, following the Italian team's strong showing at pre-season testing, per BBC Sport.

However, there was a familiar look to the timesheet after the first practice session as the two Mercedes drivers topped the standings—albeit with Bottas having replaced now-retired 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg—per the FIA:

Formula 1 provided a recap of the early action:

And in FP2 Hamilton proceeded to again blitz the field, leaving all the other drivers trailing in his wake.

As noted by BBC Sport's Andrew Benson, Finn Bottas will no doubt be feeling the pressure early on in his Mercedes career having failed to get within half a second of his team-mate in either practice session on Friday:

Vettel was able to split the Mercedes drivers in the afternoon—after both Ferraris were eclipsed by the Silver Arrows and the Red Bulls in the morning—but the four-time world champion will need to find much more pace on Sunday if he is to compete for the race win.

Australian Ricciardo headed his Red Bull team-mate, Max Verstappen, as he finished in fifth place behind Raikkonen.

The 19-year-old Dutchman ran wide over the grass and gravel at Turn 12 in the afternoon while on what could have been his fastest lap, but he avoided hitting the barriers.

That is more than can be said of Renault's Jolyon Palmer, who hit the wall at Turn 16 to draw a red flag in the afternoon's action, per Formula 1:

McLaren enjoyed better fortunes on the first day of running in Melbourne than they had during a miserable pre-season testing.

Fernando Alonso improved his time from the morning by more than a second to finish 12th in the standings after the afternoon's action with a 1:26.000.