Bullish Daniel Ricciardo ready to play hardball with Sebastian Vettel

HIGH noon at Albert Park. Pit lane opened its doors.

HIGH noon at Albert Park. Pit lane opened its doors. Unblinking metallic contraptions crawled across the bitumen like a cluster of steel spiders. Lewis Hamilton took his Mercedes-Benz for a spin. On turn nine, a safety device kicked in and his oil-thirsty Merc switched itself off.

Hamilton climbed from the cockpit, resisted the temptation to boot a tyre, looked right, looked left, looked right again, crossed the road and stomped to the garage while his temporarily deadbeat vehicle was towed by a crane. The pre-race favourite for the Australian Grand Prix had failed to complete a single lap of his first official practice session.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, having joked about the AFL-styled “hip and shoulder” being among the most likely responses to Red Bull stablemate Sebastian Vettel’s team-last mantra, was slinging around what team boss Christian Horner claimed to be a more reliable set of wheels than the German’s.

Ricciardo rubbed Mercedes’ early troubles in Hamilton’s face, and overshadowed Vettel, by purring through 26 swift laps that only briefly became complicated when he departed the fast chicanes past turn 11 and took an unscheduled detour to the track-hugging grass.

Watching from the VIP seats was Mark Webber. “Chilling out,” said Vettel’s former sparring partner/punching bag. Given Ricciardo any advice on dealing with the merciless four-time world champion? “Nup,” Webber deadpanned. “Not at all. He doesn’t need much advice. Everyone has to do it their way. He’s a big boy. He’s in a sensational team, there’s a lot of experience inside the team to help him achieve what he wants. He’s earned his stripes and I’m looking forward to seeing how he’ll go. It would be a very brave man to underestimate Red Bull.”

And it was a brave man who underestimated Hamilton after the first of two practice sessions. His rapid departure had suggested that nothing was more unreliable in this embryonic turbo era of Formula One than pre-race proclamations of reliability. Hamilton was relishing the uncertainty after Vettel’s four straight championship wins. “One team destroying it for four years, having your arse whooped so badly, is not good for the sport,” he said. “You want a championship that goes to the wire and I hope the changes enable that to happen this year.”

But he was waiting for his roadworthy certificate from the ding-fixers while Ricciardo produced metronomic laps of the block. Even Vettel was pushed into the garage after 10 laps of the first session. His engine buzzed like a high-powered mosquito. His response when the helmet came off? He rolled his eyes. As though he expected as much. Later when he was told on the team radio that his front tyres had touched the grass, he replied in “thanks, scoop” fashion: “I’m aware of that.”

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was the benchmark with the swiftest lap in the first run. Ricciardo was fifth. Vettel was seventh.

Mercedes-Benz flexed its muscle in the late-afternoon drill. Hamilton was first, quicker than both Red Bulls when his car wasn’t attached to a crane.

Vettel (fourth) turned the tables on Ricciardo (sixth) in the afternoon. Red Bull discovered unexpected levels of reliability with 64 and 51 laps from Ricciardo and Vettel respectively.

“Every time I came back to the garage there was nothing I could see catching on fire so that was a positive,” Ricciardo said. “The car has some strong points. The traction is better than expected. It seemed good and we can make some more improvements. I’m very pleased. Normally the guys see something like pressure loss but there was nothing negative said today. I just hope we continue doing what we’re doing and keep getting stronger.”

Qualifying will be staged in forecast wet and dangerous conditions today.