Friday Practice 1 times
1 1 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 1:29.214
2 5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:30.707
3 35 Sebastian Vettel BMW 1:30.857
4 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:30.878
5 7 Jenson Button Honda 1:31.162
6 38 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:31.401
7 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:31.528
8 4 Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:31.571
9 15 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:31.661
10 8 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:31.737
11 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:31.782
12 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:32.011
13 17 Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 1:32.194
14 20 Christijan Albers Spyker-Ferrari 1:34.043
15 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari 1:34.627
16 21 Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 1:35.055
17 9 Nick Heidfeld BMW 1:37.249
18 23 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:39.221
19 6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:39.242
20 11 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:39.550
21 19 Scott Speed STR-Ferrari 1:41.763
22 12 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:44.130
Report
A slippery start in Melbourne
Alonso heads Massa as track conditions improve
16 March 2007
At last, the first official practice session of the season got underway under grey Melbourne skies here at Albert Park on Friday, with BMW’s Sebastian Vettel heading out Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Spyker’s Adrian Sutil promptly at 10am.
Conditions were fearsomely greasy initially as a light drizzle persisted, with Sutil besting Vettel in an inter-German fight. As things dried a little, Fernando Alonso for McLaren and then Jenson Button in the earthy Honda vied for fastest time with respective laps of 1m 42.878s and 1m 42.769s.
The next spell saw the Ferraris set the pace, Kimi Raikkonen lapping his in 1m 39.242s and Felipe Massa coming out to do 1m 39.277s after sitting out all of the session up to that point. Strong overtones of Schumacher there!
For these new hour and a half long practice sessions teams must nominate which drivers will run. In this first one everyone ran in team order except for Vettel standing in for Robert Kubica, and Kazuki Nakajima for Nico Rosberg at Williams.
There were plenty of minor incidents; Rubens Barrichello, Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen, Button and Alonso all had minor off-track adventures, and one of the BMWs decimated a pigeon that unwisely stayed on the line a moment too long.
The times all fell further as conditions continued to improve, a fact signalled when Nick Heidfeld pushed his BMW to the fore with a lap of 1m 37.249s shortly after the hour. Before long Alonso was back out, pushing his McLaren to second place ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton (1m 37.610s and 1, 37.962s), but with seven minutes left Red Bull timed it well to put Mark Webber on dry tyres, and he slashed down to 1m 32.194s to go fastest. No prizes for guessing the crowd’s reaction!
The local hero subsequently improved to 1m 31.661s before a minor off in Turn One, narrowly holding off Button who did 1m 31.976s before being supplanted by team-mate Barrichello’s 1m31.737s. But quicker than you could write that Button went quickest in 1m 31.162s from Nakajima’s 1m 31.401s, and then Vettel beat them with 1m 30.857s.
Conditions were improving so fast that those who made dry-tyre runs went so much quicker than those who only shortly before been setting the pace on wets. In the final minutes Alonso stamped his authority by taking fastest time away from Massa, 1m 29.214s to 1m 30.707s. And to please McLaren further, Hamilton’s super-clean first session yielded 1m 30.878 for a close fourth behind Vettel.
Behind them Button’s 1m 31.162s held up for fifth ahead of the impressive Nakajima (1m 31.401s), Coulthard (1m 31.528s), Kovalainen (1m 31.571s), Webber (1m 31.661s), Barrichello (1m 31.737s) and Takuma Sato (1m 31.782s).
Left behind in all this were Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 32.011s), Wurz (1m 32.194s), Sutil (1m 34.043s), Liuzzi (1m 34.627s), Albers (1m 35.055s), Heidfeld (1m 37.249s), Davidson (1m 39.221s), Raikkonen (no dry-tyre run and 1m 39.242s), Schumacher (1m 39.550s), and then Speed and Trulli (1m 41.763s and 1m 44.130s), each having mechanical problems.
What does it all mean? It’s hardly worth trying to assess just yet, as the track will be drier still this afternoon. But for the first proper run of the year, it was great fun to watch.
|