**** 2007 Australian GP ****

[ZfrkS62]

and one of the BMWs decimated a pigeon that unwisely stayed on the line a moment too long.

sounds like the highlights are already starting to pile up and we haven't even gotten to qualifying yet! I hope they showed that on TV

[SPEEDCORE]

Finally the season has started!!! WOO HOO!!

Im still sad Schumie retired as this could of been his greatest season, but alas I must move on and Massa is the driver for me I think. Kimi being ex-Mclaren has alot to prove(i hate mclaren) soo might be afew races b4 I can start really supporting him.

Both sessions just finished today. Good to see Ferrari at the top even tho its only practise. Hamilton looks like a contender and I will laugh really hard if he beats Alonso on sunday!!

Forza Ferrari!!

[5vz-fe]

As much as I am disappointed, but all the new unknowns and team switching make the season still very very exciting to chase after. I just hope there will be more wet race this season.

[sameerrao]

Practice 2 results and report

Practice 2: Massa on top as Lewis shines Friday, 16, March, 2007, 05:25 Ferrari confirmed it's pre-race status as favourites when Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen ended Friday's free practice for the Australian Grand Prix first and second fastest. The Brazilian was in control for much of the second session, as first Fernando Alonso, then Nick Heidfeld and finally Lewis Hamilton all tried and failed to break the Ferrari man's grasp on the session. But the British rookie Hamilton did however end the his first day as a grand prix driver, third overall and best of the rest - four places ahead of his double-world champion team-mate Alonso. The teams has a great deal of ground to make up following the morning's mostly wet session, so most of the field was on track as second practice began. Massa immediately set the agenda by lowering Alonso's morning mark to 1m29.1s, but just behind, the increasingly impressive Hamilton snapped at his heels. The pair swiftly chased the target time down into the 1m28s bracket and before long were joined by Alonso and Raikkonen. By the end of the first runs the order had taken on something of a testing feel to it, with Massa's 1m28.111s putting him 0.4s clear of the pack, which was led by Alonso, with Raikkonen a further 0.1s back, just in front of Hamilton. But just before the half hour mark, BMW's Robert Kubica, having sat out morning practice, hinted that this wasn't going to be a total McLaren/Ferrari affair by going second quickest – proving that the German squad really does intend to mix it with the top two this weekend. And just as Alonso moved back to the front with an hour still to go, the Pole's team-mate Nick Heidfeld lapped within a tenth of Kubica to prove the point. Then the red flags came out at half distance after Heikki Kovalainen's Renault stopped on the track with a fuel system problem at the same time as Rubens Barrichello crashed at Turn 14. Both had yet to try for quick laps. As soon as the lights went green again, Massa reclaimed his place at the front with a lap of 1m27.868s. And while Heidfeld initially tried to usurp the Ferrari, the Brazilian simply ran off a number of short bursts of hot laps as he worked down to an eventual, and unreachable, 1m27.353s. Team-mate Raikkonen waited until almost the end of the session to join Massa at the front of the queue, the Finn having spent most of his afternoon seemingly on long runs. But even Kimi's best would still fall some 0.4s short of Massa. Hamilton's fastest lap came late in the session as he staved off a determined effort from Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, who was fourth quickest. But the world champion team will be concerned that both its drivers were forced to park their cars out on track with the same problem, before the end of the session. No such worries for Heidfeld, who claimed fifth after a particularly consistent run following the red flag period. Alex Wurz put in a brilliant and unexpected flier late on to go sixth for Williams, while team-mate Nico Rosberg proved the team's pace in eighth. Alonso dropped away from the fight after the red flag and ended the day 0.68s off the ultimate pace in seventh, while Kubica and Red Bull's David Coulthard completed the top ten. Anthony Davidson made it a great day for Super Aguri as the Honda B-team drivers outpaced the factory squad. The Englishman, embarking on his first full season as a grand prix driver, was 11th fastest after a session-long battle with his team-mate Takuma Sato who ended up 13th behind Toyota's Jarno Trulli. For much of the 90 minutes Jenson Button looked like a candidate for the top ten, but in the final analysis he slipped down the order to an ignominious 14th. The crest-fallen Brit had predicted as much yesterday. Barrichello wiped out at Turn 14, lightly damaging but beaching his car in the gravel, and was thus forced to watch as he slipped down the order to 15th, just ahead of Ralf Schumacher. Mark Webber could not match DC's pace in the second Red Bull in 17th ahead of Kovalainen's striken Renault. Toro Rosso, rather unexpectedly, may find themselves in a fight on and off the track with Spyker this weekend. As the row rumbles on as to whether or not Super Aguri and STR are using customer chassis, Spyker chief Colin Kolles will have been pleased to see Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers taking the fight to Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi. Australian Grand Prix, Free practice session 2 results 1. MASSA Ferrari 1m27.353s 2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m27.750s 3. HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.829s 4. FISICHELLA Renault 1m27.941s 5. HEIDFELD BMW 1m27.970s 6. WURZ Williams 1m27.981s 7. ALONSO Mclaren 1m28.040s 8. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.055s 9. KUBICA BMW 1m28.281s 10. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m28.495s 11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m28.727s 12. TRULLI Toyota 1m28.921s 13. SATO Super Aguri 1m29.009s 14. BUTTON Honda 1m29.066s 15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m29.542s 16. R SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m29.574s 17. WEBBER Red Bull 1m29.801s 18. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m30.097s 19. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m30.383s 20. SUTIL Spyker 1m31.108s 21. ALBERS Spyker 1m31.175s 22. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m31.693s

[sameerrao]

- Isnt it funny that the "customer" Honda team beats the official team.
- Toyota looks pretty awful
- Awesome job by Lewis on his first ever run in Melbourne 8)
- Toro Rosso is showing the negative aspect of not doing much testing and deciding their driver line-up at the last minute. The cars and drivers looked loose/rusty.

[5vz-fe]

Wow......season after season, the Mclaren just not reliable.

Mclaren and reliability just don't mix.

[Max Power]

kimi went purple in s1 and 2 on the last lap and then pited... :-/ 8)

ws F1...finally

[xecutioner]

just came back from todays practise

3 hours was madness

awsome stuff by the ferrari's and yeh kimmi was flyin rite at the end

im impressed with lewis hamilton so far

cant wait for tomorrow now

[sameerrao]

Where are the pictures?

[R8audi]

This looks like it could be BMW's year!!! It's gotta make you think that Williams were holding them back quite badly. I'm not naive enough to think they going to consistently be in the top 3, but they certainly look set for some podiums this year!

Kubica and Heidfeld look quite promising... 8)

I'm so excited for the season!!!!!!!!

[TopGearNL]

Yeah Toyota is just a joke, and it shows..

Awesome job by Hamilton!

[Erez]

Originally Posted by nejcdolinsek MASSA KIMI 1-2!!!!!! FORZA FERRARI!!!!!

8)

[sameerrao]

Saturday Free practice report and times

Kimi shows his hand in final practice Saturday, 17, March, 2007, 01:15 Kimi Raikkonen fired a warning shot to Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa by topping the times in final practice for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday. Having been overshadowed by the Brazilian throughout the winter and in Friday practice at Albert Park, Raikkonen landed an important psychological counter-punch ahead of qualifying this afternoon. The Finn ended the hour-long practice nearly half a second clear of Massa, who was shuffled back to fifth amid the traditional frantic scramble in the closing minutes. Giancarlo Fisichella emerged second fastest for Renault, confirming the promising pace he showed yesterday and suggesting the world champion team will be a contender at the front this weekend. Debutant Lewis Hamilton did another sterling job to finish third on the timesheets, once again upstaging his champion team-mate Fernando Alonso. But the real eye-opener was the performance of Anthony Davidson, who jumped to a sensational fourth in the dying moments for Super Aguri. Some light rainfall just before the start of the hour-long session meant the action took a little while to get going, as most drivers confined themselves to installation laps before taking refuge in the pits. But after 20 minutes a flurry of cars left the pits and the session got underway in anger. Giancarlo Fisichella set the initial benchmark, clocking a 1m29.866s on his first lap and improving to 1m29.065s and then 1m28.366s on his next two circuits. Just before the halfway mark Alonso moved to the top with a 1m27.612s and in the subsequent 10 minutes the leaderboard changed virtually by the second. After a couple of laps to get into the swing of things Raikkonen became the first man to crack the 1m26s barrier at this year’s event, taking command of the session with a 1m26.616s. Team-mate Felipe Massa initially couldn’t match that pace, going second quickest with a 1m27.352s. But the Brazilian soon reasserted his authority, pipping his team-mate’s time by an infinitisemal 0.008s. Meanwhile debutant Lewis Hamilton underlined his quality by immediately thrusting himself into the thick of the action after sitting out the first half-hour. The 22-year-old Briton went straight to P5 on his first flier and moved up another two places with a 1m27.083s next time around – demoting team-mate Alonso to fourth in the process. With 13 minutes left on the clock, Raikkonen – perhaps tiring of Massa hogging the limelight at Ferrari – vaulted back to the top of the charts with an emphatic 1m26.106s. That remained unbeaten, but Kimi shaved another few hundredths off his time anyway with a final lap of 1m26.064s to finish 0.4s clear of Fisichella and Hamilton. The only threat to his supremacy came from Alonso, who looked as if he might usurp his old sparring partner on his final flier when he set a new sector one benchmark and followed it up with an equally strong middle sector. But the Spaniard blew the lap with a mistake in the final corner and had to content himself with seventh on the timesheet. Davidson's performance in lapping little more than 0.4s shy of the ultimate pace was quite remarkable given the inexperience and financial constraints facing Super Aguri. Takuma Sato's best effort in the sister SA07 was three-quarters of a second slower but that still put him ninth overall. Free practice session 3 results 1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m26.064s 2. FISICHELLA Renault 1m26.454s 3. HAMILTON McLaren 1m26.467s 4. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m26.491s 5. MASSA Ferrari 1m26.547s 6. HEIDFELD BMW 1m26.753s 7. ALONSO McLaren 1m26.786s 8. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m26.937s 9. SATO Super Aguri 1m27.266s 10. WURZ Williams 1m27.322s 11. WEBBER Red Bull 1m27.390s 12. KUBICA BMW 1m27.753s 13. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m27.887s 14. TRULLI Toyota 1m27.897s 15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m28.039s 16. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.061s 17. BUTTON Honda 1m28.119s 18. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m28.208s 19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m28.332s 20. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m28.485s 21. SUTIL Spyker 1m28.678s 22. ALBERS Spyker 1m30.547s

[5vz-fe]

Super Aguri is in damn good shape. I really don't know how that happen, they are suppose to use 2nd grade car.

[sameerrao]

They may be going v. low on fuel to get some nice exposure. Let's see how they do in qualifying. But both guys are miles ahead of Button/Barrichello

Hamilton continues to amaze!