Grand Prix of Australia 2008, Practise Sessions

Robert Kubica led a BMW Sauber one-two in a frenetic and highly
unusual final practice session for the Australian Grand Prix in
Melbourne.

None of the Ferraris and McLarens were even in the top ten, having
all hit traffic or had to slow for incidents on their soft-tyre laps.

The session was a flurry of activity throughout, with a wide variety
of drivers and teams – from the Ferrari drivers to Toro Rosso’s
Sebastian Vettel – appearing at the top of the timing screens over the
course of the hour.

Fernando Alonso ultimately ended up third for Renault, while
champions Ferrari managed only 11th and 14th places, with Felipe Massa
and Kimi Raikkonen respectively.

The McLarens were back in 12th and 20th – Lewis Hamilton lapping 0.9 seconds quicker than teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

The action started early, with Timo Glock recovering from a trip
across the Turn 15 grass to hit the top of the timesheets for Toyota
briefly before the top contenders emerged after 20 minutes.

Felipe Massa immediately usurped Glock with a 1:27.707 lap, but the
Ferrari driver’s time in front was short-lived, as first position then
changed hands five times in just two minutes.

First Fernando Alonso beat Massa’s time by 0.3 seconds, then the
Renault driver was pushed back by first Raikkonen’s Ferrari (which
lapped 0.043 seconds faster) and then Williams’ Nico Rosberg, who
raised the benchmark to a 1:27.196.

But just seconds after the German had done so, Alonso improved again on his next lap and retook the top spot by 0.029 seconds.

McLaren did not join the battle at the front when they emerged.
Hamilton slid across the grass at Turn 1 on his first flying lap,
before taking fourth place next time around, while Kovalainen’s opening
run left him only 13th – albeit just 0.8 seconds off the pace.

Raikkonen usurped Alonso with 20 minutes remaining – sneaking ahead
of the Renault by a scant 0.004 seconds. The world champion then became
the latest driver to explore the grass at Turn 1, but continued without
drama.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time             Laps
 1.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:25.613          18
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:25.950 + 0.337  16
 3.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:26.082 + 0.469  14
 4.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:26.171 + 0.558  17
 5.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:26.385 + 0.772  14
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:26.407 + 0.794  17
 7.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:26.502 + 0.889  18
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:26.663 + 1.050  18
 9.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:26.682 + 1.069  18
10.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:26.882 + 1.269  11
11.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:27.020 + 1.407  19
12.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:27.084 + 1.471  14
13.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:27.162 + 1.549  15
14.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:27.163 + 1.550  17
15.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:27.284 + 1.671  13
16.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:27.333 + 1.720  18
17.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:27.489 + 1.876  18
18.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:27.578 + 1.965  17
19.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:27.601 + 1.988  15
20.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:27.992 + 2.379  15
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:28.363 + 2.750  13
22.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:28.912 + 3.299  15

Dear oh dear! That’s made it more nervous to watch tonight. Very promising if it means a lot of racing on sunday though. Keep flying Kimi!

| Free Practise 2 – Hamilton Fastest as Kimi Struggles With Set Up

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in Friday’s afternoon
practice for the Australian Grand Prix by a comfortable margin of 0.9
seconds, while local hero Mark Webber took a surprise second place for
Red Bull.

Morning pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen was content to spend most of the
session working on longer runs, and ended up only sixth fastest in his
Ferrari, although his time from session one remained the quickest of
the day.

Felipe Massa took third for Ferrari despite a wild spin late on,
with McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen fourth and David Coulthard confirming
Red Bull’s potential with fifth position.

Webber occupied the top spot for the majority of the session, having
hit the front after half an hour when he produced a 1:27.614 lap to
beat Hamilton’s initial benchmark by 0.128 seconds. The Australian then
went faster still a quarter of an hour later, improving to 1:27.473.

The big names tried and failed to beat it, even when on soft tyres –
although their slower laptimes relative to this morning’s session
suggested that heavier fuel loads were now being carried.

Massa moved up to second position, then had to abandon a subsequent
effort after running very wide on the exit of Turn 12. The Ferrari
eventually looped into a spin across the gravel, but missed the wall
and was able to rejoin and cruise back to the pits.

Both McLarens also came close to Webber’s time only to fall short,
but then in the final minute of the session Hamilton improved his time
by over a second, producing a 1:26.559 to end the afternoon on top.

Jarno Trulli had looked set for fifth place for Toyota until he put
a wheel on the grass under braking for Turn 3 with 10 minutes remaining
and spun into the gravel. He managed to hold on to seventh as others
improved.

Williams put their troubled morning behind them to take eighth place
with Nico Rosberg, although his teammate Kazuki Nakajima could only
manage 16th.

Force India had a promising afternoon, with both cars in the top ten
early on and Giancarlo Fisichella leaping into ninth with his last run.

Timo Glock completed the top ten for Toyota, ahead of Honda’s Jenson
Button, Nick Heidfeld in the fastest of the BMWs, and Fernando Alonso,
who slipped right back to 13th for Renault having been in the top six
this morning.

Many drivers visited the gravel traps and grass run-off areas as
they acclimatised to the dusty track without traction control and
assisted engine braking.

Heidfeld, Adrian Sutil, Coulthard, Nakajima, Rosberg, Fisichella,
Alonso and Takuma Sato all went off the road at least once, but managed
to continue without drama.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:26.559           33
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:27.473  + 0.914  27
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:27.640  + 1.081  29
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:27.683  + 1.124  28
 5.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:28.037  + 1.478  26
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:28.208  + 1.649  28
 7.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:28.292  + 1.733  22
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:28.352  + 1.793  31
 9.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:28.469  + 1.910  32
10.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:28.582  + 2.023  28
11.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:28.632  + 2.073  30
12.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:28.731  + 2.172  32
13.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:28.779  + 2.220  37
14.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:28.849  + 2.290  28
15.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:28.860  + 2.301  35
16.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:29.077  + 2.518  33
17.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:29.161  + 2.602  32
18.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:29.193  + 2.634  40
19.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:29.518  + 2.959  14
20.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:29.605  + 3.046  11
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:30.663  + 4.104  16
22.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:31.527  + 4.968   8

| Ferrari Quotes

Kimi – "I am not very happy with the way practice went," said Raikkonen.
"This morning we found some good settings for the car, but in the
afternoon, we struggled and our laptimes reflect that.

"We must look carefully at the data to work out how to improve the
car. We have seen that if we manage to find the right set-up, we have
the potential to be competitive."

Felipe – "All in all, I am happy with this start to the season," he said. "We
were able to work towards the race and I think I will be able to run at
a good pace on a long run.

"Because of going off the track, I was unable to try the last set of
soft tyres available to me, but that’s certainly not a big problem. The
harder tyres are very consistent, while the other compound gives more
grip on the first lap, but then suffers from greater degradation."

|Video – FP2

Watch Kimi drive around Melbourne onboard

| Free Practise 1 – Kimi Begins Title Defense on Top

World champion Kimi Raikkonen began his title defence in fine style
by topping the first practice session of the new season in Melbourne.

The Ferrari driver deposed McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in the closing
moments of the session, and then extended his margin to 0.487 seconds
by producing an even faster time on his second flying lap of the run.

BMW’s Nick Heidfeld took the honour of leading the field out on
track for the first installation laps of the 2008 world championship,
but it was Champ Car convert Sebastien Bourdais for Scuderia Toro Rosso
who set the first timed lap of the season after 15 minutes.

Raikkonen was the first of the potential title contenders to
complete a flying lap, and the reigning champion held the top spot for
a quarter of an hour before Hamilton produced a 1:27.085 and moved
ahead.

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) looked set to beat Hamilton’s time on his
last run until encountering traffic in the final sector. But Raikkonen
had no such problems when he returned to the track, and was able to
retake the top position in the final minute of the session.

Hamilton’s new McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen briefly edged
Massa down to fourth before the Brazilian reclaimed third with his last
lap.

Home favourite Mark Webber moved up to fifth place for Red Bull in
the closing moments, albeit 1.8 seconds slower than the leaders.

Until Webber’s late lap Fernando Alonso (Renault) had been the
closest challenger to the top two teams. The former world champion was
also nearly two seconds behind Raikkonen’s time and had two excursions
through gravel traps, while his teammate Nelson Piquet caused a brief
red flag after spinning and stalling at Turn 13.

The Brazilian rookie was one of several drivers in trouble during
the session. Red Bull’s David Coulthard had to stop with low oil
pressure, Heidfeld was forced to park his BMW at the trackside just
after the one-hour mark, and Nico Rosberg spent most of the morning in
the Williams garage due to a gearbox issue and did not complete a
flying lap.

Robert Kubica took seventh for BMW, with Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli
showing promising form for Toyota in eighth and 10th places, split by
Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso.

Jenson Button finished just outside the top ten for Honda, ahead of Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella and Coulthard.

Still extremely short of spare parts, the recently-reprieved Super
Aguri team only came out for a handful of laps in the closing minutes
and ended the morning nearly five seconds off the pace.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:26.461          25
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:26.948 + 0.487  21
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:26.958 + 0.497  25
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:27.114 + 0.653  19
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:28.263 + 1.802  18
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:28.360 + 1.899  22
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:28.579 + 2.118  12
 8.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:28.913 + 2.452  16
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:28.957 + 2.496  22
10.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:29.014 + 2.553  23
11.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:29.124 + 2.663  25
12.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:29.230 + 2.769  24
13.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:29.301 + 2.840   5
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:29.363 + 2.902  32
15.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:29.533 + 3.072  17
16.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:29.561 + 3.100   7
17.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:30.155 + 3.694  13
18.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:30.357 + 3.896  21
19.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:31.048 + 4.587   7
20.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:31.771 + 5.310   7
21.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:35.053 + 8.592   3
22.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  No time            3

Okay maybe not Ice Age just yet, it is just practise I know. But it’s a good sign nonetheless! Here is a collage of screenshots I quickly put together from the highlights after the practise session:

|Video – FP1

1. Kimi Wide Slide!

Size: 2MB, Length: 0.28secs | Download