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Mark Webber gave the Australian crowd assembled for the belated start to the 2011 F1 season just what it wanted to see as he claimed fastest time in the opening practice session on the streets of Melbourne’s Albert Park.
The Red Bull Racing driver posted a best time of 1min 26.831secs to steal an early march on the field, with team-mate Sebastian Vettel confirming RBR’s status as pre-season favourite by backing Webber up in second place. Three-tenths separated the two team-mates, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in third place to underline Ferrari’s expected role as nearest challenger to the Milton Keynes squad.
Even after the enforced two-week hiatus caused by the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix, any meaningful action in Melbourne was further delayed by the hapless Karun Chandhok. Making his debut with Team Lotus after being confirmed among its reserves, the Indian completed just three corners of the Albert Road track before losing control on cold tyres and hitting the wall at turn four.
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Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix - First Practice Results
With the T128 - destined for Jarno Trulli for the rest of the weekend - badly damaged, and debris littering the track and run-off area, the rest of the field opted to bide its time before venturing out, with Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado the first to set a time. Yahoo! Eurosport UK
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was fourth quickest, followed by Williams’ Rubens Barrichello, but they were 1.321secs and 1.599secs adrift respectively.
Then came the McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, with their cars sporting a more conventional exhaust system compared to the radical design that plagued them during testing, however, they were both just over 1.6secs off the pace.
Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes, the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov completed the top 10, all just under two seconds down, with Felipe Massa 11th after a difficult session that included a trundle across the gravel early on. The Press Association
Nick Heidfeld was 12th on 1m 28.928s, separated from the Russian by his former Sauber team mate Felipe Massa, who flat spotted a front Pirelli after posting a 1m 28.842s best.
Behind the fast set, Adrian Sutil was 13th for Force India on 1m 29.314s, then came Sebastien Buemi for Toro Rosso on 1m 29.328s, Maldonado on 1m 29.403s, an impressive Daniel Ricciardo on 1m 29.468s in Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, Sergio Perez in the second Sauber on 1m 29.643s, Nico Hulkenberg in Paul di Resta’s Force India on 1m 31.002s, and Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus on 1m 32.428s.
The Virgins were off the pace, with Jerome D’Ambrosio lapping his MVR-02 in 1m 35.282s ahead of team mate Timo Glock on 1m 35.289s. Formula 1
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