Verstappen hoping for rain in Melbourne

Max Verstappen hopes for a rain-affected Australian Grand Prix in order to close the ever-narrowing gap between Red Bull and Mercedes even further. The Dutchman was second-fastest in Friday's second practice session behind the Silver Arrows' world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton led the way after FP2 with a top time of one minute 23.931 seconds, but Verstappen was only a tenth away.

The Red Bull was also to the Mercedes' average lap times on long-run simulations, suggesting Sunday's race will be close-fought.

Rain is forecast for Saturday and Sunday, music to the ears of Verstappen, who has already built up a reputation as a modern-day rain master, but also hopes damp conditions could lessen his team's power deficit.

"It's not so engine-dependent in the wet," said Verstappen. "It's more tricky to go on the power and our car normally works well in the wet.

That’s what I call a positive start to the season ???????? The car handled well and I’m happy with today. There is of course always room for improvement, so we #keeppushing #AusGP pic.twitter.com/Ne1RUdu2gQ — Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) March 23, 2018

"I enjoy myself as well. Hopefully tomorrow will be wet.

"We know Mercedes are going to be quick. We have still some things to improve, of course, but it's positive."

Red Bull have been tipped to take the fight to Mercedes in the battle for honours in 2018, but Verstappen was cautious about reading too much into an impressive display on Friday.

"First we have to do qualifying, if it's going to be wet or dry we will find out," he said. "But it's a positive start to the season, I think.

"This is one grand prix, I think you need at least two, three grands prix to really see what's going on.

"Even then it's all about the development rate of the car."

Verstappen's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was seventh-fastest in FP2 after his flying lap attempt was curtailed by red flags. To further compound the Australian's misery, he was handed a three-place grid drop for speeding under the red flags.