Lewis Hamilton controls rain-hit practice

World champion Lewis Hamilton dominated the opening free practice sessions of the new Formula One season yesterday as his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg hit early trouble at the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton made only a cameo appearance in the rain-hit second session but still reeled off the fastest lap, in an ominous sign for his rivals at the season-opener.

Hamilton, who also set the pace in first practice, clocked a best lap time of one minute 38.841 seconds in the slippery afternoon track conditions to prove his early superiority ahead of today’s qualifying.

But Rosberg, his closest rival last season, struck trouble in second practice when he lost control of the rear end of his Mercedes, aquaplaned and hit the wall at turn seven, damaging the front wing of his car.

With the rain upsetting teams’ plans right at the start of the new season, Hamilton took up where he left off in last year’s season of 10 wins from 19 races.

The Briton stayed in the team garage until late in the second session before uncorking the fastest time on his first flying lap.

That was enough to hold a 0.467sec edge over Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg in a Force India and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen as rain made for treacherous conditions.

“The car performed well and although we didn’t get a huge number of laps in, they were still quite constructive sessions,” Hamilton said.

“I was lucky to get a couple of dry laps to get a tiny feeling for what the balance is like around here, which was down to some good work from the team to time my runs right.”

Rosberg rued his spin which presented with his team with some extra work overnight on his car.

“That wasn’t a good start to the weekend for me. It was very wet out there, which made it tricky,” he said.

“It’s a shame I lost the car in P2. I just applied a little too much throttle through turn seven, spun round and touched the wall.

"My front wing was quite damaged, so the boys will have some extra work to do tonight.”

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who didn’t register a time in first practice, was eighth quickest in the second session, but 1.920secs slower than Hamilton. Both Vettel and Raikkonen did only seven laps in one single run on intermediate tyres.

Better conditions are forecast for today’s new-look qualifying session to determine grid positions for tomorrow’s Melbourne race.