Lewis Hamilton top as Ferrari show up conceal pace in Australia practice

Lewis Hamilton headed a Mercedes one-two in second practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton beat Valtteri Bottas by 0.048 seconds yet the two were 0.8secs clear of the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.

Ferrari, who seemed to have the speediest vehicle in pre-season testing, were fourth with Sebastian Vettel.

The doubt is that the Italian group were concealing their actual pace in front of qualifying on Saturday evening.

Vettel was 0.8secs slower than the Mercedes on both short, qualifying-style runs and longer race-style runs, which is completely contradictory to their form in testing, when all their rivals felt Ferrari were ahead.