Alonso fastest man on track during first free practice session

F1 Grand Prix, GP Australia, Albert Park

As predicted by the weather forecast rain fell before the opening session started and the first driver to venture out on a very damp track was Sebastian Vettel in his BMW-Sauber. First of the front-runners to appear was reigning world champion Fernando Alonso who quickly banged in a 1m 42.878s to go first. Nick Heidfeld then showed that the BMW-Sauber’s testing pace was no fluke setting the fastest lap so far in 1m 38.165s with under 25 minutes to go.

All the action came in the closing five minutes as the drivers shod dry rubber. Homeboy, Mark Webber, was the first to put down a marker in 1m 32.194s at 11:22. The battle for fastest time developed into a Ferrari-McLaren contest. Massa went quickest in 1m 30.707s with 1 minute to go but Alonso put in a scorcher just before the flag fell in 1m 29.214s. Felipe was unable to riposte as he was held up by Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso on his last flying lap, which caused a bit of fist shaking on the Brazilian’s part.

For the ING Renault F1 Team Heikki Kovalainen finished in a very encouraging 8th place on his first time out on the Albert Park circuit in difficult conditions while Fisichella saw the flag in twelfth spot. The drivers covered 20 and 14 laps respectively.

The 2 Red Bulls of Coulthard and Webber also powered by the V8 Renault RS27 engine ended the session in 7th and 9th places, 2.3s and 2.4s off Alonso’s time.

It looks like the 2nd session will be run in dry conditions so times should fall even further.