Hartley rises two spots

Kiwi Formula 1 driver Brendon Hartley finished 16th fastest in the second Australian Grand Prix practice session in Melbourne yesterday.

The 28-year-old from Palmerston North is starting his first full season in the sport, with Red Bull B-team Toro Rosso.

He finished 18th in the first session and then improved two places in the second, recording a 1 minute 27.745 lap in the first session at Albert Park and 1:25.925 in the second.

He was 1.994 seconds behind Britain’s Lewis Hamilton, the four-time and reigning world champion, in the second session.

Hamilton won both sessions, but while his first win was a comfortable half-second, his advantage over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the second session was just 0.127sec.

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was third, 0.228sec behind, after being second in the first sesssion. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in the lead Ferrari in the second session and Sebastian Vettel was fifth.

Vettel, who pushed Hamilton hard last season and had spoken of Ferrari’s improvement in the off-season, was a surprising 0.5 second behind the defending world champion.

In another big surprise, Romain Grosjean showed good pace in his Haas car, setting a fastest time of 1:24.648, just ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Qualifying takes place today before the main race tomorrow.