First blood to Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa posted the fastest times in the first and second sessions respectively today in Melbourne as the new F1 season finally got underway.

After 246 Grands Prix, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro embarked on a new era here in Melbourne. As the 2008 season got underway, a new man was sitting on the pit wall running the team. Stefano Domenicali had his first day in charge at a race weekend, taking over from Jean Todt, who had guided the Gestione Sportiva through 246 Grands Prix since 1st July 2003.

As Domenicali admitted, this was a special day for him and also for Luca Baldisserri, who now fills the role of team manager. However, the group is the same as ever and has the same working practices and sense of team spirit that has seen it enjoy so much success over the past few years.

The first ninety minute session of the year immediately confirmed the pecking order seen for most of 2007 and indeed throughout the recent weeks of winter testing: namely that Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro can once again expect its strongest opposition to come from McLaren-Mercedes. At the end of the session, on a track which was, as usual, very "green" and slippery on the first day, Kimi Raikkonen was fastest ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and new recruit to the Anglo-German team, Heikki Kovalainen.

However, in the afternoon, although these four drivers were again in the top six, they were split up by the two Red Bull Racing cars. This time, Hamilton was quickest, followed by Mark Webber - a popular result for the only Australian driver in the field - while Felipe was the quickest Scuderia driver in third, with Kovalainen fourth. Then came Webber's team-mate David Coulthard, with Kimi rounding off the top six. Felipe completed a total of 54 laps, one more than Kimi.To sum up the Ferrari duo's day in one sentence: Massa went off the track at the end of the day and Kimi is not yet completely happy with the handling of his F2008. Today has been characterised by much higher temperatures than have ever been experienced at this circuit.

As usual, Friday's work centred on finding the best set-up on the car and a comparison of the two types of tyre that Bridgestone supplied to the team. "The start of a new season is always a special feeling," commented Stefano Domenicali. "From a personal point of view, I cannot deny that this is a special day, my first on the pit wall as the head of the Gestione Sportiva. We are not entirely satisfied with the way practice went and we still have to work on finding the right balance on the car, both for qualifying tomorrow and for Sunday's race."

Kimi Raikkonen: "I am not very happy with the way practice went. This morning we found some good settings for the car, but in the afternoon, we struggled and our lap times 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 Massa: "All in all, I am happy with this start to the season. 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."

Luca Baldisserri: "A bit of a complicated day, especially in the second session. The set-up of Kimi's F2008 in the afternoon was certainly not the best and we need to work out exactly why. As for Felipe, he was pretty happy with the handling of his car. At the end, the Brazilian had an off-track excursion which meant he was forced to end his work programme a bit prematurely and it bore testimony to the fact that, this year, the margin for error is virtually nonexistent. Now we must prepare as well as possible for qualifying and the race. The weather conditions are very difficult and will provide a stern test of the cars's reliability."

Free practice - First session

K. Raikkonen: 1st 1.26.461 25 laps chassis 268
F. Massa: 3rd 1.26.958 25 laps chassis 267
Weather: air temperature 31/35 °C, track temperature 33/38 °C, sunny.

Free Practice - Second session

F. Massa: 3rd 1.27.640 29 laps chassis 267
K. Raikkonen: 6th 1.28.208 28 laps chassis 268
Weather: air temperature 38/40 °C, track temperature 41/43 °C, sunny.