Free practices First Session Second Session Driver Pos. Time Laps Pos. Time Laps Chassis F. Alonso 6th 1.27.747 21 15th 1.29.025 20 283 F. Massa 4th 1.27.511 18 17th 1.29.591 21 281
Weather
First session: air 27/25 °C, track 34 °C; sunny, then cloudy.
Second session: air 21/20 °C, track 26/24 °C; overcast, with occasional rain.
Two elements affected Friday practice: traffic and, in the second session, changing weather conditions. Therefore it is hard to draw any conclusions as to the pecking order among the teams at the end of these three hours of free practice, as fact confirmed by Stefano Domenicali. “We tried to get through all our planned programme, which centred on finding the best set-up for the race and on evaluating the two types of tyre Bridgestone has supplied for this Grand Prix. Obviously, we would have preferred to have been able to do more laps in consistent conditions, but this applies to everyone, so it’s not worth complaining about. All in all, from what we could see, the situation is similar to the one in Bahrain. Tomorrow, it will be vital to have a good qualifying: in order to do that, it will be very important to manage the timing to find the best moment to go out and do a time, especially in the first two sessions.”
Fernando Alonso: “I am happy to be racing in Melbourne: this is one of the most enjoyable events on the calendar. Overall, I am reasonably happy with the work we managed to get done today, despite the rain that came in the second session. Sure, I would have liked to have got a greater understanding of the tyre behaviour, especially the softer ones, which we only used in FP2. However, I think everyone was in the same situation. We worked exclusively at preparing for Sunday’s race and that’s why I’m not bothered by my position in the classification. Usually on Friday, this track is very dirty but this time the grip level on the first lap was not so bad. For the race, tyre management will be a key factor, given that it’s very probable that we will have to do a lot of laps on the same set of tyres. We will need to try and handle it in the best way possible to be able to attack when the right moment comes.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a difficult Friday, especially the second session. Because of the rain which came and went, we did not manage to do exactly what we would have wanted. We concentrated on race preparation while it’s possible some other teams were on a different programme to us. So, there is no point in trying to understand the situation simply by looking at the time sheet. Our aim tomorrow is to be well prepared for qualifying, which at this track will be even more important than usual. From what we have seen, the tyres do not suffer much degradation, but it’s still a bit early to draw any definite conclusions. I like the Albert Park circuit a lot: I have always been quick here, but for one reason or another, I have never managed to finish the race in the points, apart from in 2007 when, after a difficult qualifying, I finished sixth. I hope I have better luck this time.”
Chris Dyer: “We did not manage to get through everything we wanted to do, but all the same, we were able to acquire enough information on the handling of the car and the tyres. The F10 seems to be pretty good on this track too, both on the harder and softer tyres. As scheduled, both cars were fitted with the engines they had on Friday and Saturday in Bahrain. On Fernando’s car, we also tried a new updated front wing, which gave positive results. Tomorrow, it will be available to both drivers.”
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