MELBOURNE FP1: HAMILTON TOPS IN RAIN AFFECTED SESSION

Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets for Mercedes in a rain-hit first free practice at Formula One’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Friday.

The Briton bided his time until a break between rain squalls late in the 90-minute session at Albert Park and posted a lap of one minute 29.725 seconds, over four-tenths of a second quicker than Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat.

Kvyat’s Australian team mate Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest, over a second adrift of Hamilton, and took a spill into the gravel late in the session as he pushed for a better time.

Four-times champion Sebastian Vettel, tipped to threaten Hamilton’s ambitions of a third successive title, was first out of the garage in his Ferrari but failed to post a time as gusty winds buffeted the street circuit.

His team mate Kimi Raikkonen locked up and skidded at a turn, finishing with the 17th fastest time of the 20 cars that posted laps.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was fourth quickest ahead of Toro Rosso’s teenager Max Verstappen.

Hamilton’s team mate Nico Rosberg, who won the final three races of last season, was sixth quickest.

Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz struggled with a reliability problem and was also unable to post a lap time.

New team Haas, the first U.S.-owned F1 outfit in 30 years, had a cautious debut with French driver Romain Grosjean the slowest and team mate Esteban Gutierrez 18th fastest.

1 44 LEWIS HAMILTON MERCEDES                                    1:29.725 14
2 26 DANIIL KVYAT RED BULL                                             1:30.146 +0.421s 14
3 3 DANIEL RICCIARDO RED BULL                                     1:30.875 +1.150s 13
4 27 NICO HULKENBERG FORCE INDIA                             1:31.325 +1.600s 8
5 33 MAX VERSTAPPEN TORO ROSSO                                1:31.720 +1.995s 14
6 6 NICO ROSBERG MERCEDES                                            1:31.814 +2.089s 11
7 14 FERNANDO ALONSO MCLAREN                                  1:33.060 +3.335s 11
8 22 JENSON BUTTON MCLAREN                                         1:33.129 +3.404s 16
9 11 SERGIO PEREZ FORCE INDIA                                        1:33.370 +3.645s 6
10 20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN RENAULT                                  1:34.060 +4.335s 13
11 77 VALTTERI BOTTAS WILLIAMS                                    1:34.550 +4.825s 6
12 19 FELIPE MASSA WILLIAMS                                           1:34.679 +4.954s 6
13 12 FELIPE NASR SAUBER                                                  1:34.796 +5.071s 7
14 30 JOLYON PALMER RENAULT                                        1:35.477 +5.752s 12
15 9 MARCUS ERICSSON SAUBER                                       1:37.956 +8.231s 6
16 94 PASCAL WEHRLEIN MANOR                                      1:40.401 +10.676s 6
17 7 KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN FERRARI                                         1:40.754 +11.029s 10
18 21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ HAAS                                      1:41.780 +12.055s 8
19 88 RIO HARYANTO MANOR                                              1:43.372 +13.647s 7
20 8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN HAAS                                            1:43.443 +13.718s 6
21 5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL FERRARI                                    
22 55 CARLOS SAINZ TORO ROSSO