Mercedes: "we’re looking forward to the fight"

Mercedes technical boss expects a close season opener in Melbourne.

Mercedes technical director, Jame Allison says he expects a closely fought race between rivals Red Bull and Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix. Having finished both practice sessions on Friday top, Mercedes still expect the season-opening round to be a closely fought affair at the top.

Lewis Hamilton topped FP1 on Friday by just over half-a-second to teammate Valtteri Bottas. It was a further two-tenths of a second gap back to Max Verstappen in third with both Ferrari's splitting the Red Bull's in fourth and fifth with home favourite Daniel Ricciardo in sixth respectively. Practice two was a closer contest with just over half a second separating the top five with Hamilton just beating Verstappen by 0.127s. 

Allison was pleased with the work carried out by the team on the opening day of the season.

“It was a good day," he said.

“We had a programme of finding out how the tyres behaved and we’ve been able to work through that without any drama.

“It’s brilliant as always after the winter testing to actually be racing again and to be finding out for real where our car stands.”

“If we were in any doubt before, we’re in no doubt now that it’s going to be a tight weekend with both Ferrari and Red Bull.

“But we’re looking forward to the fight tomorrow and again on Sunday.”

Daniel Ricciardo will be less of a threat however after picking up a three-place grid penalty for speeding under a red flag in practice two. Teammate Verstappen, however, has looked strong since his installation lap on Friday and the Ferrari's are quietly confident as well.