Grand Prix Special, Australia – Practice, Full Results

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Well the season has officially started… At 10am Australian time, the first of three practice sessions began.

What was interesting was just how competitive the Force India cars were – Fisichella finished the first practice in 12th and the second in 9th, which is certainly an improvement on last year. Whether he was on a particularly light fuel load and whether the times will remain as low throughout the weekend remains to be seen.

Having topped the first practice, Räikkönen could do no better than 6th in the second. Afterwards he was far from amused at how well the car was going which does seem a little strange after praising the speed of the 2008 Ferrari after every pre-season test. He did explain that they struggled with the set-up in the afternoon session – I expect that, being Ferrari, they will have no such problems come tomorrow.

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The Super Aguris were understandably well off the pace, it is no surprise that after a winter of not knowing whether they were actually going to grace the track or not, they have missed out on valuable development time. While finishing second to last and last, over 4 seconds off the pace, Sato was keen to point out that he’s happy to just be racing. What more could he say?

What was disappointing was not to see the true pace of the Williams cars; Rosberg spent much of the first session stuck in the garage with gearbox problems. The second session was slightly more productive and the German finished it in 8th, while his team-mate Nakajima could only manage a 1:29.077 leaving him in 16th.

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The Red Bulls were surprisingly quick. I had a suspicion that they would be fast but Webber’s 2nd place finish in the second practice was, although 0.9 seconds off Hamilton, certainly a good time. Lets hope that the cars stay in one piece for long enough to get a result – last year Webber and Coulthard failed to finish 14 races between them.

It’s difficult to draw any firm conclusions from the opening two tests but it is clear that the McLarens and Ferraris are a cut above the rest. The most interesting battle over the weekend? Well… Räikkönen/Hamilton will certainly be worth watching closely but watch out for the Renaults, Red Bulls, BMW Saubers and Williams’ as there is little more than a second separating them all.

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Practice 1

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

Practice 2

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

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