The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button set the fastest times of the day in a second session at Albert Park blighted by intermittent rain and a stiff breeze.
For much of the 90 minutes teams either sat and waited for the drizzle to stop or puzzled over which tyres to use. The only meaningful times were set in the first and last few minutes when the track was at its most predictable.
As the cars headed out light rain was beginning to fall and although Nico Rosberg, the morning’s fastest man, threw down the marker, the McLarens were soon squabbling between themselves, Button and Hamilton recording the quickest lap twice each in a frantic burst before they headed for shelter with 25 minutes gone, Hamilton again on top. ESPN F1
Renault’s Robert Kubica Fastest in First Practice at Albert Park
Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
Red Bull’s Mark Webber was third fastest, ahead of Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov.
The best times were set in dry conditions at the start of the session, with some passing light showers preventing any improvement.
Hamilton had said Thursday that McLaren would use practice to learn how to set up the car for qualifying rather than the race, believing that the grid position would be the key to winning Sunday’s race.
That explained the big gap from the McLaren times to some of its rivals. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were 15th and 17th on the time sheets, more than three seconds off the pace, as they instead concentrated on their race set-up.
“It’s only practice and I’m sure we’re running less fuel than the Ferraris and Red Bulls, but we’ll see tomorrow,” Button said. “At the moment we’ve just got to focus on how the car feels, and it feels pretty good.
“As soon as I jumped into the car here I was reasonably happy with the balance and it’s just got better throughout the day.” Telegraph.co.uk
Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi, Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi were separated by three-thousandths of a second in sixth to eighth places, the German leapfrogging his Force India team mate by a thousandth in the dying moments. Williams’ Rubens Barrichello and Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg completed the runners below 1m 27s, with 1m 26.904s and 1m 26.956s respectively.
Robert Kubica was 11th for Renault on 1m 27.108s, a time matched by Pedro de la Rosa as BMW Sauber enjoyed a more trouble-free session. The Spaniard got in Button’s way right at the end, however, which did not please the world champion. Kamui Kobayashi was 13th with 1m 27.455s, and managed not to lose a wing this time.
Heikki Kovalainen encouraged Lotus no end with 1m 29.860s for 18th.
Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari was 19th on 1m 30.510s and Jarno Trulli was further behind his Lotus team mate this time, with 1m 30.695s. Virgin’s Timo Glock was the final runner with a time of 1m 32.117s in the Virgin. His partner Lucas di Grassi did not get a timed lap, and neither did the two HRT drivers, Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna. Chandhok at one stage came to a halt while exiting the pits. Formula 1
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