Nico Rosberg was determined to stay in front and he beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton to set the pace in Friday practice as Mercedes dominated at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver was only 0.1s faster than his teammate and 0.715s clear of the Sebastian Vettel.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth just ahead of Williams’s Valtteri Bottas and Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull. McLaren’s Jenson Button was 12th, 3.69secs off the pace, while team-mate Kevin Magnussen crashed after just four laps.