The German will see the stewards at 8.45pm BST with a fine, rather than a competitive penalty, the most likely outcome. 

The action on track in Melbourne continued the trend from the 2022 season’s opening races, with Ferrari and Red Bull at the front. 

This time it was Ferrari who held the advantage over their rivals, with championship leader Charles Leclerc ending FP2 quickest by 0.245sec ahead of defending champion Max Verstappen. 

The other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was third, nearly four tenths down on his team-mate, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso fourth and Sergio Perez fifth in the second Red Bull. 

Mercedes’ lack of pace was again apparent at Albert Park, with neither of their cars making it into the top 10 in FP2. Hamilton ended down in 13th, 1.5sec off Leclerc with George Russell in 11th, three tenths quicker than his team-mate. 

Hamilton is already 29 points off the championship lead and that gap looks likely to grow in Melbourne this weekend. The Briton scored just a single point in Jeddah two weeks ago and failed to make it into second qualifying. 

The seven-time champion said it was a “difficult” session. 

“Nothing you change on the car makes a difference at the moment. We made some changes going into P2, P1 was better. It’s just a tricky car,” Hamilton said. 

“There’s not a lot we can do. This is just the way it is… we just have to drive with it. Even when you do a decent lap it’s 1.2 seconds down. It’s difficult.”