Hamilton remains on top - FP3 report and results

Lewis Hamilton maintained his advantage ahead of the field in Melbourne, finishing top in free practice three ahead of qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton, who finished fastest in both practice sessions on Friday, led Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc in second and third places respectively ahead of the all-important qualifying session.

Despite believing that Mercedes would be playing catch-up to Ferrari at the start of the season, Hamilton led the way by two-tenths of a second from Vettel while teammate Valtteri Bottas lingered further back in seventh.

Saturday saw a more reflective order with teams taking out fuel for qualifying simulations as well as recording long run pace, it was Haas who impressed the most, finih=shing fourth and fifth respectively as Romain Grosjean led teammate Kevin Magnussen in the impressive display.

Red Bull recorded just a single lap on the soft compound tyres, Pierre Gasly finishing the session highest in sixth whilst the Dutchman Max Verstappen registered his best time that was only good enough for ninth.

Renault showed a marked improvement from Friday FP1, finishing the session in 10th and 11th with home crowd favourite Daniel Ricciardo leading the way from his new teammate Nico Hulkenberg.

Williams continued to prop up the times with Robert Kubica and George Russell ending up over a second behind the next fastest car in the form of Lando Norris in the McLaren.