The weather Friday at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia for the first Friday of
Formula One practice was wet, warm, changeable, cloudy, overcast, sunny, and all of the above over and over. It certainly didn't make life easy for the eleven teams trying to decide on tyres, set-ups and the like.
Two-time World Champion FERNANDO ALONSO, now driving for Vodafone
McLaren Mercedes turned the fastest time Friday morning in the 90-minute morning session, which was run in the wet and on a wet track. His fast time was 1:29.214/213.968 kph.
In the dryer afternoon session, also 90-minutes long, FELIPE MASSA/Scuderia
Ferrari Marlboro was fastest at 1:27.353/218.547 kph. He had been second fastest in the morning. Alonso only managed seventh fastest in the afternoon. Fourteen drivers went faster Friday afternoon than Alonso's fastest morning time, and every driver went faster in the afternoon than he had in the morning.
Rookie LEWIS HAMILTON/Vodafone McLaren Mercedes exceeded expectations, running fourth fastest in the morning and third fastest in the afternoon. He led for a while in the afternoon. His fastest time was 1:27.829/217.363 kph. He said: "I was so excited when I drove out of the garage for the first time this morning – it was an incredible feeling as I have wanted to be a
Formula 1 driver since I started karting and now I am and enjoying every single moment."
Only two teams ran a third/Friday driver, each in the morning session. SEBASTIAN VETTEL/No.35
BMW Sauber
F1 Team was third fastest, and KUZUKI NAKAJIMA/No.38 AT&T
Williams was sixth fastest. In the afternoon all eleven teams ran their primary drivers.
Two drivers got speeding tickets. KIMI RAIKKONEN/Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro was cited for overdriving the pit lane in the morning. He was overall nineteenth fastest in that session. In the afternoon, GIANCARLO FISICHELLA/ING
Renault F1 Team was caught. He was fourth fastest in the session, despite having fuel pressure problems.
