Friday Practise Thread: Its raining in Melbourne!!

[truefan72]

My first impressions are that
1. Hamilton is the real deal and I'll eagerly support him throughout the year.
2. Williams and wurz are much more competitive than we thought
3. BMW are now in ready to compete with Ferrari, McClaren and Renault
4. Super Aguri are very intruiging...
5. Alonso can drive, the reliabilty of McClaren will be key
6. Massa is not going to play second fiddle at Ferrari, expect him and Kimi to have a somewhat contentious relationship. Someone will end up unhappy and Massa will have some "strange car trouble"
7. Webber just about in the same position as last year with the Red Bull being utterly dissapointing
8. Toyota is probably not as bad as these times indicates, they will usually end up being a bit more challenging during quali and the race.
9. Renault have some issues with the car
10. What's up with Honda?

[baker]

Massa sets tone for the rest of the season - accept it already, he is clearly faster than kimi.

I'll happily accept it if the same pattern is established over the season. But it's far too early to draw the conclusion that Massa is clearly faster than Raikkonen.

I read somewhere that Kimi set the fastest times in both sectors 1 and 2 on his in-lap. Maybe he's happy to let Felippe THINK he's faster.

[Robinho]

Massa sets tone for the rest of the season - accept it already, he is clearly faster than kimi.

just as well that everyone, Alonso included, didn't just "accept it" that Ms was definately going to win last year as you confidentley predicted.

i do think Kimi will have his work cut out to beat Massa this season, but given his experience and speed he ought to shade it over the course of the season, although that may not be enough to take the title, Ferrari aren't the only team in F1 who could win this year

[baker]

OMG, Super Aguri's faster than Honda it really is that bad

How embarrassing for Honda. Last year's car driven by 2 ex-Honda drivers is faster (so far) than this year's car.

[webliams]

I'll happily accept it if the same pattern is established over the season. But it's far too early to draw the conclusion that Massa is clearly faster than Raikkonen.

I read somewhere that Kimi set the fastest times in both sectors 1 and 2 on his in-lap. Maybe he's happy to let Felippe THINK he's faster.

if I recall correctly this is true. kimi was in traffic for most of the time, at one point/ or for most of the session alonso was in front, either holding him up or kimi was doing his homework for the race, he only had room to run on the in laps of both sessions and was fastest in the first 2 sectors. i don't think alonso wanted to give kimi anything while kimi and ferrari wanted to see what alonso and mclaren had to give. at the end kimi had the fastest speed trap while massa had the fastest lap time.

both Renaults had similar problems with the fuel pressure or something like that. it could be the same problem red bull had in Bahrain. fisi was on a fast lap but then come to a holt. I believe it would've made his final time quicker but he never got to finish the lap. this happen with only a couple minutes to go in the session.

ruben's ran of the track and just touch the wall to produce a red flag, it was around mid session in the second practice, just before this heikki pulled of the track and Webber come down the pits slowly with a gearbox problem. Apparently it's the same problem Webber had in testing but was set up differently to the way they initially fixed the problem (this is what Webber said yesterday but today the reporters are saying the car went over a bump in fifth gear, as it come down it got stuck. not sure if it's the same thing).

when the red flag come out button was ahead of Ruben's split by the super aguri, Webber was in of DC.

[PSfan]

Saturday's practice results:

1. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari 1:26.064
2. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Renault 1:26.454
3. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.467
4. Anthony Davidson Britain Super Aguri-Honda 1:26.491
5. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 1:26.547
6. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW 1:26.753
7. Fernando Alonso Spain McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.786
8. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Renault 1:26.937
9. Takuma Sato Japan Super Aguri-Honda 1:27.266
10. Alexander Wurz Austria Williams-Toyota 1:27.322
11. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1:27.390
12. Robert Kubica Poland BMW 1:27.753
13. Ralf Schumacher Germany Toyota 1:27.887
14. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 1:27.897
15. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Honda 1:28.039
16. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 1:28.061
17. Jenson Button Britain Honda 1:28.119
18. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull-Renault 1:28.208
19. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.332
20. Scott Speed United States Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.485
21. Adrian Sutil Germany Spyker-Ferrari 1:28.678
22. Christijan Albers Netherlands Spyker-Ferrari 1:30.547

Once again, wasn't expecting Fisi or the Ant up that high, but at the same time the teams have to be carefull with their engines now cause they'll get penalties if they break (as oppose to Friday that they are allowed to change engines without penalty...) So would have been nice to know how many laps each driver did during the session.

[Ian McC]

Massa sets tone for the rest of the season - accept it already, he is clearly faster than kimi.

You were saying?.............

[Dave B]

In fairness, we never got to see what Massa was capable of.

[Garry Walker]

You were saying?.............

That this time, due to the gearbox problems for FM, i stepped into a pile of **** , but dont worry, Massa will give Kimi some quite good educational lessons about driving in the upcoming races

[Robinho]

you really belive that Massa wil wipe the floor with Kimi for the rest of the season? sure he will probably be ahead of Kimi at times this year, the same as he was ahaed of MS last. he'sa very talented boy, but he's not the class of the field and will almost certainly not be able to crush Kimi over the cours eof the seaosn, in fact i really think that Kimi will have the edge over a full season, whilst Massa will more than likely succumb to pressure on a few occasions.