[sameerrao]

Another report:

Free practice: Champ Alonso leads the way Friday, 16, March, 2007, 00:45 World champion Fernando Alonso got his title defence off to a perfect, if slightly misleading, start as the first 90-minute practice session for the Australian Grand Prix was affected by heavy morning rain. Subsequently the McLaren star came out top of a five-minute scramble by a number of drivers, including his rookie team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who switched to dry tyres in the final moments of the session. To his credit, Alonso was always near the top of the times whenever on track, but questions as to whether he has the pace to challenge Ferrari on Sunday remain unanswered as the drying track turned the session into a lottery. Felipe Massa, the winter pace-setter, was also among the gaggle of late, dry-shod, runners and the Ferrari driver ended the session 1.5s slower than the leading McLaren. But both the Brazilian and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen looked ominously fast when the track was still wet, half-way through the session, and are likely to be more of a threat in session two. The Finn, never even bothered to try slicks, such was his confidence in finding his touch in the afternoon. For many, the spotlight was on the other McLaren of Hamilton though, as F1's first black driver took his public bow. But while the track was treacherous for the first hour of the session, and the pressure was clearly on the 22-year-old Englishman, he didn't drop so much as a wheel on the grass. In fact Lewis took just two laps to match the pace of his senior team-mate in the wet, and went quietly about his business to end the session fourth fastest overall. Test driver Sebastien Vettel was third for BMW as the young German sat in for Robert Kubica. Vettel was one of a couple of drivers (along with Jarno Trulli and Adrian Sutil) to venture out early on in the session and was never far from the front when he was on track. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld also set the pace for a while as the track was drying out, proving BMW's winter potential, but his 17th place can be put down to his lack of a dry run. Behind Hamilton came Jenson Button in fifth, another to revel in the wet conditions - circumstances in which he is peerless - but the Briton grabbed the chance of a dry run late-on to stay in the mix. Japanese tester Kazuki Nakajima, briefly second in the last-minute shuffle, was sixth fastest as he stood in for Nico Rosberg at Williams, ahead of David Coulthard's Red Bull and Heikki Kovalainen's Renault – which twice ran off the track mid-session. Mark Webber had home glory stolen from him in the last three minutes. The Aussie was the first to venture out on dry tyres, immediately going five seconds quicker than Heidfeld's previous mark, but Mark had fired too soon and was quickly usurped by the pack. Rubens Barrichello rounded out the top ten ahead of Takuma Sato's impressive Super Aguri/Honda and Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault. Alexander Wurz was 13th for Williams, the last of the dry runners proper. Adrian Sutil worked hard for 14th in the Spyker. The German debutant clocked up 26 laps as he learned the Albert Park track, and he was rewarded by outpacing his senior team-mate Christijan Albers by more than a second. Vitantonio Liuzzi's STR split the two Dutch cars. Anthony Davidson ended up 18th just behind Heidfeld's BMW, but the Englishman, effectively still a rookie, was as high as third when the track was still wet and was another not to bother with dries. Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Scott Speed and Jarno Trulli (lucky not to clout the wall in a huge spin at Turn 11) completed the runners.