Haas F1 Team's Romain Grosjean wound up eight fastest in Friday's second practice session, a good performance which bodes well for the rest of the weekend.
Grosjean was once again challenged by brake issues however, overcoming two separate lock-ups - one which put him onto the grass in turn one and another that sent him on a brief drive through the gravel in turn three.
Nevertheless, the Frenchman put in 29 laps with his best being a 1:25.436 on his ninth lap while shod on a set of Purple ultrasoft tires.
"It was a pretty good day on my side of the garage," said the Haas driver.
"The car felt much nicer than in winter testing, which is great. It’s good to be here and put the right setup on the car and go out there and have some fun.
"We more or less did the program we expected to do today, which is surprising for a first day in Australia, though there was a bit of trouble on the other side of the garage.
"Hopefully we can share our data and get even faster for tomorrow. I’m sure there are plenty of areas where we can improve. Hopefully, tomorrow’s going to be a good day."
GALLERY: all the pics from Friday's action
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