The consensus in the paddock was that Ferrari, led by four-time champion Vettel and starved of championship glory for more than a decade, held the advantage following a promising eight days of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

But Hamilton's blistering pace here round Albert Park would appear to point to the contrary. Indeed Britain's triple world champion, who is bidding to reclaim the crown he lost to bitter rival Nico Rosberg last year, finished comfortably clear of the chasing pack with his best effort of one minute and 24.220 seconds.

Valtteri Bottas, the Finnish driver hired to replace Rosberg following his shock retirement, was an eye-watering half-a-second adrift of Hamilton with the Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in third and fourth.

Vettel, completed only 10 laps in comparison to the 22 managed by Hamilton, and was just sixth in the final order. He finished 1.2 seconds slower than the Briton while his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was marginally quicker in fifth.

Of course this is only first practice and there is only so much that can be gauged from the 90-minute session with drivers operating varying fuel levels. Hamilton and Bottas also posted their best times on the ultra-soft tyre with Red Bull and Ferrari opting to stick with the slower supersoft compound.

But the theory that the sweeping changes to the sport's technical regulations and Ferrari's encouraging testing pace would bring a sudden halt to Mercedes' dominance, now appears to be under significant scrutiny.

Hamilton's Mercedes team have won 51 of the last 59 races and sealed three consecutive drivers' and constructors' championships following an unprecedented reign of success.

And the 32-year-old Hamilton will no doubt be pleased with his opening salvo of the year as he bids to become the first British driver in Formula One history to win four titles.

McLaren arrived in Australia off the back of a catastrophic winter of testing plagued by a slow and unreliable Honda engine. Fernando Alonso managed to complete 17 laps and finished 14th of the 20 runners, nearly three seconds adrift of Hamilton. His new team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne however, propped up the order, the best part of 4.5 seconds off the pace.

Felipe Massa, swiftly talked out of retirement after Bottas's switch to Mercedes, was seventh for Williams with Haas driver Romain Grosjean, Renault new boy Nico Hulkenberg and the Force India of Sergio Perez rounding out the top 10.

Britain's Jolyon Palmer was last but one after completing only six laps following a transmission problem with his Renault.