The world champion looked to be struggling in Melbourne. His best time was set on the medium tyre – he aborted his soft-tyre qualifying simulation run when he took three bites trying to turn into Turn Three and ran wide on the exit.

Verstappen said: “The balance wasn’t even completely out, no massive or major problems, but somehow the grip just wasn’t coming alive, just struggling on all four tyres really on sector one and the last sector and that means of course that we are not really up there at the moment.

“It will be a bit hard to fix, but it’s also nothing I didn’t expect when I arrived here, so I am not positively or negatively surprised with the pace we are showing.”

Verstappen came to Melbourne expecting not to be able to match the McLarens for raw pace, but rain is forecast for the race on Sunday, which is likely to put him back in the fight for victory, given his excellence in wet conditions.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was eighth, ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and George Russell’s Mercedes.

On the race-simulation runs late in the session, once they were corrected for tyre and fuel weight, Leclerc appeared to be the fastest, a smidge ahead of Norris, followed by Hamilton, Piastri, Russell and Verstappen.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz, who impressed by setting second fastest time in the first session, was mixing it close to the top teams on race fuel, averaging between the pace of Leclerc and Hamilton.

Mercedes did their race runs on the hard tyres, while the other top teams used the mediums, so their averages cannot be compared. Russell was significantly quicker than rookie team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Russell said Mercedes were competitive on the medium and hard tyres, but not yet on the soft compound that will be used for qualifying.

“It was a really up and down day,” he said. “Every time we had the medium or hard tyre on, we were in the top two. Then we put the soft on and we didn’t go much quicker. Clearly there is a bit of pace in the car and we need to understand the tyres.”