Ferrari's on top in session marked by off-course excursions and mechanical probl

F1 Grand Prix, GP Australia, Albert Park

Thanks to the new timetable the free practice for the Australian Grand Prix restarted at 14h00 local time this afternoon. Weather conditions were better than in the morning in the Albert Park: the air temperature was 21°C and that of the track 29°C. The rain that had perturbed the first session did not reappear, and this allowed the 22 drivers to get down to the nitty-gritty on a circuit that was still quite slippery.

In the opening minutes Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) and Jarno Trulli (Toyota) went off simultaneously in the first corner imitated a little later by Nico Rosberg in his Williams-Toyota. Around 14h40 the red flag came out and the session was stopped when Barrichello spun and his Honda stopped in a dangerous position. Tonio Liuzzi also had a spectacular gilhooley but without damaging his car. He was not alone as Alexander Wurz (Williams-Toyota), Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber) and David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault) all tripped up, happily without too much damage to their cars.

Renault had a fairly eventful session as both cars ended up on the side of the track probably because of mechanical issues. Heikki Kovalainen was the first to grind to a halt around halfway through practice, and Giancarlo Fisichella did the same just a few minutes before the chequered flag. The team is examining the reasons for these mechanical glitches and should know what happened very soon.

Felipe Massa and Kimi Raïkkônen set the quickest times in their Ferraris. The Brazilian lapped in 1m 27.353s, 0.97s quicker than, his team-mate. Next up was Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren and then came the first Renault in the hands of Fisichella, half-a-second off the quickest time. Hot on his heels were Nick Heidfeld’s BMW-Sauber and Alexander Wurz in the leading Williams-Toyota. Heikki could do no more than 10 laps and ended up way down the classification in 18th place.

What came as a surprise in this session was the good performance of the two Super Aguris (11th and 13th) ahead of the works Hondas, and that of the Williams-Toyotas, which ended the day in front of the Japanese manufacturer’s works cars.