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Melbourne is
known as being the most European Australian city in
terms of its weather and that proved to be the case
today, with the Albert Park circuit bathed in warm
sunshine during the first practice session, while the
second one got underway with rain falling on the track
before intermittently getting dry and wet again
throughout the ninety minutes. Therefore the time sheet
is not the place to go to learn who might do well in
qualifying and the race, because the drivers’ fastest
lap times are more a reflection of when they were out on
track and with what fuel load.
Felipe Massa and
Fernando Alonso set the fourth and sixth fastest times
respectively in FP1, while in FP2 the Spaniard was fifteenth
and the Brazilian seventeenth. As more rain is forecast this
weekend, possibly for the race itself, at least the data
gathered during the wet time on track will come in useful
when planning strategy and giving the drivers an idea how
much grip they can expect in various conditions. The
Spaniard ran an updated front wing today, while the
Brazilian used the original one so that data from the two
could be compared and with the newer version showing
positive results, both drivers now have the option of using
it for the rest of the weekend.
McLaren took the
“front row” with Lewis Hamilton quickest ahead of Jenson
Button. The only Australian in F1, Mark Webber, was third
fastest at his home race for Red Bull Racing, with Michael
Schumacher, a four times winner in Melbourne, fourth for
Mercedes. Fifth was Renault’s Russian rookie, Vitaly Petrov,
while Sebastien Buemi completed the top six for Scuderia
Toro Rosso. With the timetable in Melbourne shifted to suit
more global TV viewers, the final free practice session
takes place at 2pm in the afternoon tomorrow, with
qualifying starting at 5pm.
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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