McLaren's "potential" is keeping Fernando Alonso's spirits up after he surprisingly missed out on Q3 in Australian GP qualifying.

The British team is hoping the decision to ditch Honda engines in favour of Renault can be a catalyst to jump back into contention for podiums and even race wins but currently they are unable to extract the best performance after cooling issues in testing.

Still to be behind both the Renault works team and the surprise package at Haas is a disappointment for McLaren, even if their lead driver is ignoring the current order.

"I think we have huge potential to unlock inside the car," he told Sky Sports.

"We still have some issues before we unlock everything so I think in the next coming races we can look forward to the season very optimistic."

After three years of trying to hang on to positions in the race though,  Alonso, who will start 10th after Valtteri Bottas' gearbox penalty, is looking forward to trying to make some progress up the order.

"It's going to be a different race for us – more in attacking mode and it's going to be fun," he claimed. "Especially if it rains tomorrow, it's going to be amazing for the show."

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Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne starts one place behind his teammate and is also hopeful to make it back inside the top 10.

"We are in reasonable shape for tomorrow, we had some good long-run pace and hopefully we can get some points," said the Belgian.

"We're in that group with a few teams that are very, very close together. Hopefully, we can make a little bit of a difference in the race tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton remained the quickest man in second practice at the Australian GP, but his rivals were hot on his heels in Melbourne on Friday afternoon.

The Mercedes driver lowered his morning benchmark to a 1m23.931s but that was only a tenth clear of Max Verstappen as Red Bull are emerging as the world champions closest challengers.

Valtteri Bottas was involved in a moment with Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 3 early on, which saw the younger of the two Finn's have to take to the gravel, but he would end ahead of his fellow countryman in third as the 2007 champion was again the lead Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel was fourth with Romain Grosjean sixth for Haas as a brief red flag for a loose timing wire halted Daniel Ricciardo, who was on course to challenge Verstappen and Bottas before his fast lap was complete.

It is the American team and McLaren who continue to lead the midfield with Fernando Alonso eighth, Kevin Magnussen ninth and Stoffel Vandoorne completing the top 10.

Renault remains in touch thanks to Carlos Sainz in 11th with Force India and Williams also looking to fight for the final Q3 places as nine-tenths covered Grosjean in P5 to Lance Stroll in P14.

Toro Rosso may have looked solid in testing but there are already signs the performance could be lacking as Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly sat 16th and 17th, four-tenths behind the midfield pack.

Sauber has the most work to do, however, with their drivers 0.001s apart but nine-tenths slower than anyone else.

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The final half an hour was given to race simulations and what has become clear is the harder compounds are looking more attractive with drivers able to extract good performance over a decent number of laps, perhaps pointing to a one-stop strategy.

It was the long runs in Barcelona which suggested Mercedes could hold the advantage and that also looks the case in Melbourne with Hamilton the only man to comfortably lap in the 1m28's on the Ultrasoft tyre and few signs of the degradation problems which showed up in testing.

Ferrari and Red Bull are still very much in the frame, however, and with rain expected on Saturday plenty of drama awaits on qualifying day at Albert Park. 

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff is concerned Valtteri Bottas' Q3 crash in qualifying for the Australian GP could cause a longer-term dip in confidence.

The Finn has struggled to keep in touch with teammate Lewis Hamilton throughout the weekend in Melbourne and his plight was exacerbated after he hit the barrier on the exit of Turn 2.

With damage pretty substantial, it is already known Bottas will start from at least P15, after taking an additional five-place penalty for a new gearbox, the night of hard work to come is the last thing Wolff is worrying about, however.

"My reaction with the F-word was about the psychological effect it could have on Valtteri," the Austrian was reported by ESPN. "This is a moment when you could start to question yourself and this in race one is not good for the psychology of the driver.

"We are trying to give him all the support we can and obviously it's very early days for our team championship, but starting P15 in Melbourne is not an easy starting position."

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Bottas himself doesn't appear to have been too affected by the nasty accident, believing he was a victim of just slightly overstepping the boundaries.

"I used a bit more of the track on the exit of Turn 1," he explained. "I went a bit too wide and just a bit surprised [with what happened next].

"I think the track was still a little damp from the rain we had previously and I lost the rear of the car and tried to correct it but it all happened so quick and there was nothing I could do.

"We approach tomorrow with a fighting spirit," the 28-year-old added.

"Points are given on Sundays, not Saturdays, so we're going to give it our all and get as high [up the leaderboard] as much as we can."

World champion Lewis Hamilton produced an impressive early benchmark as he led a Mercedes 1-2 in the first practice session ahead of the Australian GP.

The British driver posted a 1m24.026s on his second set of Ultrasoft tyres, over half a second clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas and three-quarters of a second faster than Max Verstappen in third for Red Bull.

Though an ominous sign, the saving grace for Mercedes' rivals is Verstappen, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel all set their times on the Supersoft compound which is around half a second slower in terms of performance.

The battle between Red Bull and Ferrari does look fierce based on Practice 1 though, with less than three-tenths covering the four cars and the Scuderia taking a more measured approach to the largely unrepresentative session.

Despite hopes that the midfield could close the gap to the frontrunners this year, seven-tenths was the margin between Daniel Ricciardo, who had a tricky session in sixth, and Romain Grosjean in seventh for Haas.

The Frenchman's position does consolidate the pace his American team showed in testing though, but McLaren are lurking with Fernando Alonso eighth and Stoffel Vandoorne tenth.

Strong improvement should be expected though as their running was limited with both cars after the double world champion was hit by a repeat of the exhaust problems as seen in pre-season testing.

Renault also hinted at their expected progress with Carlos Sainz moving into the top 10 in ninth, six-tenths faster than teammate Nico Hulkenberg in 13th.

Like Haas, Toro Rosso was another surprise performer from pre-season and the junior Red Bull team also looks in reasonable shape with Pierre Gasly 11th in an impressive effort from the young Frenchman.

The usual midfield leaders of recent years, Williams and Force India hinted at their ongoing struggles after failing to get a car into the top 10 but both remain closely matched with less than three-tenths covering their four drivers.

Rookie Sergey Sirotkin was the highest placed finishing P12 with Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez sandwiching Lance Stroll in 14th and 16th respectively.

Both are traditionally known to take it easy in practice, with Force India also evaluating an upgrade package they have brought, so it will be interesting to see if they move up as the weekend progresses.

Despite higher expectations, Sauber continues to bring up the grid with Marcus Ericsson almost nine-tenths clear of new teammate Charles Leclerc as the Monegasque took it steady in his first session around Albert Park.

With dusty conditions and different agendas, times from the first practice are usually irrelevant, a first look at the order may emerge when teams complete qualifying and race simulations later in Practice 2.

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel traded barbs after the prior stormed to a convincing pole position for Sunday's Australian GP.

A close battle had been building between the two four-time world champions and Max Verstappen in the final part of qualifying, but the Mercedes driver then blew everyone away by going almost nine-tenths faster than his initial Q3 effort to take the top spot by two-thirds of a second.

In the post-session press conference, a surprised Vettel turned to his rival and asked: "What were you doing then?" leading to a snappy response from the Briton.

“I was waiting to put a good lap in so I could wipe the smile off your face!” he grinned.

In fact, though many had expected Red Bull to take the fight to the Brackley-based team, it was the pace of Ferrari which had equally caught Hamilton off-guard.

“What was surprising was to see how quick the Ferraris were," he claimed.

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The 33-year-old then proceeded to reject the argument that a special qualifying mode on the engine was the reason for his sudden and drastic improvement.

"During that lap I was in the same modes as before but it was hooking up the tyres and getting the lap together,” Hamilton said.

“I’m so happy with that lap. It was such a nice lap. I’m always striving for perfection and that was as close as I could get.

“I’m always in party mode,” he concluded, referring to the nickname he has given Mercedes' new engine power boost."

Vettel appeared unconvinced later on though, saying "I don't know" if he had any other answer for Hamilton's pace, the Ferrari driver wasn't too downbeat, however.

"Overall I’m pretty happy. It wasn’t very good yesterday, today was a lot better," he commented. "I’m quite happy that we put the cars right at the front, very close to pole. That gives us a good shot.

“The last four years everyone’s been closer to Mercedes in the race than in qualifying so hope on that."

Max Verstappen admits the likelihood of Red Bull facing a "painful" deficit down the straights is his main concern ahead of the Australian GP.

Though the Anglo-Austrian team is expected to be potentially the nearest challengers to Mercedes this weekend in Melbourne, it is the performance of their Renault engine which remains the biggest unknown.

The French manufacturer has repeatedly maintained gains in both power and reliability have been made for this season, but with Mercedes and Ferrari also upping their output the Dutchman knows where his team's weakness lies.

"We have to wait and see how good our overall package is with the straights here," he said on Thursday. "It is definitely going to be a bit painful there."

Despite that the 20-year-old was upbeat, adding: "I think the car compared to last year definitely made good improvements again.

"From my personal feeling, we have quite a strong car. I am optimistic but also realistic. We have to wait and see."

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Teammate and local favourite Daniel Ricciardo is also positive about Red Bull's chances as he looks to finally become the first Australian to finish and keep a podium result Down Under.

“I think we're still going to be leading the pack for now. Hopefully, we're deep in that front group and have the chance to stand up on that podium,” he commented.

Should he get the job done at Albert Park, there is only way the 28-year-old could celebrate in front of his fellow Aussies.

"If I win, absolutely. The shoe will come back. It's been a while," Ricciardo added. "I have had some very nice victories and ones I have enjoyed a lot, but this would overcome all those by a mile."

Daniel Ricciardo cut a frustrated figure as he spoke out against his penalty and then bemoaned the pace of Mercedes at the Australian GP.

The home favourite saw his chances of a strong result in Melbourne take a major blow when the stewards awarded him a three-place grid penalty for speeding under red flag conditions in practice.

His resulting fifth-place in Saturday's qualifying session means the Red Bull driver will start eighth in the race on Sunday and speaking after the session he claimed the punishment far exceeded to crime.

“I thought [the grid penalty] was unjust," Ricciardo told Sky Sports F1. "A penalty sure, there are reprimands, fines, other things but to shoot me in the ankle before the season has started – I thought they could have done better.

“From fifth we go to eighth. The first parts of qualifying were OK but at the end, we missed a few tenths. It looked like it was all in the first sector.

“I don’t really know with the balance what more I could have done there. For sure it was frustrating a little bit."

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As with everyone, what took Ricciardo aback the most in qualifying was the sudden surge in performance Lewis Hamilton produced on his last lap in Q3, making what appeared to be a close fight for pole at one stage a foregone conclusion.

The reason many believe is the special power modes Mercedes have in their engine and responding to the world champion's advantage, admitted it was pretty demoralising.

“That sucks,” the 28-year-old said. “It is frustrating because everyone else wants to see them get challenged a bit more but that was a little bit of a punch in the stomach to everyone."

Such is the single lap pace that the Brackley-based team appears to have, Ricciardo believes most "top drivers" could have secured pole position.

“I think Lewis is very good but I don’t think he is too good,” he added. "The car and their package are too good. It is not to discredit Lewis, not at all, but I think even him at 90 percent with that package that they had today, he still would have got pole.

"The buffer that they had then was a little bit disheartening, so we have to try and figure it out.”

Lewis Hamilton has hit back at a jibe from ex-teammate Nico Rosberg, claiming it was his consistency which was crucial to him claiming a fourth world title last year.

Earlier this week, the 2016 champion said capitalising on dips in performance was the key to beating the Briton in a season-long fight, even suggesting doing so could keep him down for longer.

Those comments didn't sit well with the Mercedes driver, however, who issued a sharp rebuttal to Rosberg in Thursday's press conference ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

“I think there’s a lot of people that need to get headlines,” Hamilton said referring to the German. “The goal this year is to be even more consistent than last year. I think consistency is the reason I won the world championship last year.”

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The 33-year-old wasn't done with Rosberg though, referencing his decision to retire as champion when reiterating his happiness to still be competing in F1.

"It’s a privilege to be racing for the teams we’re racing for," he said. "Mercedes, with the heritage that they have, to be part of the sport that’s progressing and changing with the times and to be at the forefront of it competing against the best drivers that you can compete against.

"When you come to the end of your career you want to know that you competed against the best. There are those that bow out early, there are those that have won championships, maybe, that have not been as competitive.

"The ultimate goal is to be the best, you’re going to have to go up against the best. It’s been a great experience for me to race against Sebastian [Vettel], he’s got four world titles, the most of any other at the time.”

Lewis Hamilton produced a scintillating last lap to pole position by almost seven-tenths of a second for Mercedes in qualifying for the Australian GP.

The battle had looked incredibly close between the top three teams after the first runs in the top 10 shootout, which were delayed following a crash for Valtteri Bottas, but the world champion found almost nine-tenths of a second on his final run to set a new record of 1m21.164s.

No-one could match that as Kimi Raikkonen continued his strong weekend by claiming second for Ferrari, one-hundredth clear of teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Red Bull's lack of engine power was once again prevalent with Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo fourth and fifth, the Australian will also drop back to eighth following a three-place grid penalty given after practice.

To try and compensate for their lack of single lap, both drivers will start on the Supersoft tyre and hope to use a different strategy to challenge the two teams ahead.

Haas backed up their pace all through testing and practice by leading the midfield with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in sixth and seventh ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Renault, all three will move up a position after Ricciardo's penalty.

Carlos Sainz will start ninth with Bottas set to start 10th but his Mercedes team face a long night to fix the extensive damage caused by his crash on the exit of Turns 1 and 2.

The surprise absentees from the top 10 were McLaren as both Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne just missed out in 11th and 12th and more unexpectedly, slower than the Renault works team.

From the dominant midfield force in 2017, Force India has also slipped back with Sergio Perez only 13th and teammate Esteban Ocon struggling to get a clean lap in 15th.  

Lance Stroll produced the best of the last-gasp efforts in Q1 as a fierce battle to avoid being knocked out developed between Williams, Sauber and Toro Rosso.

The Canadian will start 14th ahead of Ocon in an impressive performance. Brendon Hartley, at his defacto home race, also impressed beating his teammate Pierre Gasly by seven-tenths of a second, though his time wasn't enough to make Q2 as he sat 16th

An excellent fight is brewing between the two Sauber drivers who improved every lap and it was Marcus Ericsson who just got the best of his rookie partner Charles Leclerc as the Alfa Romeo-badged cars finished 17th and 18th.

The other rookie, Sergey Sirotkin, was 19th in the second Williams with the aforementioned Gasly who will start alongside the Russian on the back row.

Sergio Perez is heading into the new Formula 1 season "optimistic" about Force India but admits the improvements from others is a worry.

After finishing fourth in the constructors' championship the past two years and doing so dominantly last season, the Mexican has been largely downbeat about the Silverstone-based team after a quiet preseason.

However, now in Australia ahead of the season opener, the tone has changed with Perez confident of greater competitiveness in a very tight midfield pack.

"We are not as bad as we look, especially with the upgrade package coming," he told the media on Thursday.

"The issues that we experienced in Barcelona I think are very irrelevant to what we are going to have this year. We are probably better than we expected to start the season. I am optimistic."

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The main threats to Force India come from McLaren and Renault, both of whom ended last year level in terms of performance and are expected to make strong gains in 2018.

Other teams such as Haas and Toro Rosso also hinted at better than expected performance in testing, all of which has left Perez sure of one thing.

"We are facing our biggest challenge yet in the five years I've been with the team," he declared. "It's going to be a really tough battle in the midfield with some great teams out there.

"The target for us this weekend is to start the year on a high. It's important especially in these first couple of races where everyone is figuring out many things, it's good to be out there and push for the strong result."