Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes chief Toto Wolff issues HUGE update over Brit's £120m contract

The four-time world champion’s current contract expires at the end of this season and he is on the verge of penning the most lucrative deal in F1 history that will keep him with the Silver Arrows until the end of 2020.

Hamilton had previously said he hoped to confirm his new pay-packet before the Australian Grand Prix, though that deadline came too quickly.

But Mercedes team principal Wolff has assured that the 33-year-old is close to extending his teams with the grid's front-runners.

“The contract, we have been discussing before going into the winter and then we kind of left it there to get away from Formula One," Wolff told journalists at a press conference.

“We picked it up again in January and these discussions are going in the right way. 

“We are about to finalise the last topics. There is no reason to think that it is not going to happen soon.”

Hamilton will officially begin the defence of his title on Sunday in Melbourne - a track where he has only won twice in his career. in 10 attempts, having also been disqualified once.

He finished half-a-second faster than team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the season’s first practice session in the early hours of Friday morning.

The Brit can become just the third driver in F1 history to win a fifth title this year, drawing level with iconic driver Juan Manuel Fangio.