Australian F1 Grand Prix 2018 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's Practice

British driver Lewis Hamilton was fastest in second practice at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday for Mercedes as the world champion looks to get off to a flying start to the new Formula One season, per Andrew Benson for BBC Sport. 

Hamilton was just 0.127 seconds ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen in second place and 0.283 seconds faster than Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, who was in fourth. Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third-fastest.

Here is the full time sheet from the second practice:

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:23.931
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:24.058
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:24.159
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:24.214
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:24.451
6	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:24.648
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:24.721
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:25.200
9	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:25.246
10	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:25.285
11	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:25.390
12	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:25.413
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:25.463
14	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:25.543
15	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:25.888
16	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:25.925
17	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:29.945
18	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:25.974
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:26.814
20	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:26.815

The tightness of the field will be met with relief by F1 fans after first practice, which left Mercedes fastest by some distance, suggested there might not be much of a competition over the weekend.

However, one reason for Hamilton being just 0.127 seconds quicker than his rivals was that the British world champion lost some time in the middle sector of his fastest lap. Mercedes also have a power boost from an extra engine that will be used in the final parts of qualifying.

With wet weather predicted for the race and so little time between the main contenders, it promises to be a close battle for grid positions.

And there was further encouragement elsewhere in the field, as Hamilton was closed down by a surprising number of drivers. There was also a mere 0.774 seconds between eighth-place Fernando Alonso and Williams' Sergey Sirotkin in 18th.

Rick Rycroft/Associated Press

Alonso's time was bad news for McLaren, who look some way off the pace. The Spanish driver was 1.269 seconds slower than Hamilton, while his team-mate, Stoffel Vandoorne, was 0.085 seconds further back.

"It looks like it could well be Mercedes-Red Bull-Ferrari," said Martin Brundle during Sky Sports' coverage, per Matt Morlidge for Sky Sports. "But Ferrari tend to save a little bit for when it matters on Saturday. It does look like we have a race on our hands."

Qualifying will take place at 7 a.m. GMT/3 a.m. ET  on Saturday March 24, before the main race starts at 6:10 a.m. BST/1:10am ET on Sunday March 25. Hamilton, who has won the world championship in three of the last four years, will be hoping to land Mercedes their fifth consecutive title this season.