Practice 1: Kubica sets early pace
Date published : 26 Mar 2010 - 03:14:10
Renault's Robert Kubica was the surprise pacesetter in Friday's first practice session at a sunny Albert Park, shading Mercedes GP's Nico Rosberg by 0.2s.Potentially large differences in fuel loads once again made the times hard to interpret meaningfully, but Kubica and Rosberg were among the quickest throughout and both appeared to have well-balanced cars around the tricky low-grip parkland circuit.Ditto Jenson Button, who was third fastest for McLaren ahead of Felipe Massa in the quicker of the Ferraris.Bahrain star Sebastian Vettel was fifth in the leading Red Bull, from Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in the second of the Ferraris and McLarens.The 90-minute session was interrupted by two red flags, both of them caused by incidents involving Kamui Kobayashi.First the Japanese novice mowed down a marker cone on the first apex of the fast turn 11/12 chicane, causing his Sauber to understeer across the gravel in the second part and drag debris onto the circuit.Then, around 20 minutes later, the C29's front wing collapsed and folded under the car in alarming fashion while Kobayashi was approaching turn three on an out-lap littering the track with broken carbon fibre pieces.Kobayashi escaped unscathed but played no further part in the session, while the FIA's technical delegate Jo Bauer went to see Sauber to discuss the accident.Hamilton was fastest when the first red flag flew after 40 minutes, but in the interval before the next stoppage he was demoted by his team-mate Button and Rosberg, who briefly traded the quickest time.In the closing stages Kubica got in on the act moving to the top of the timing charts with 17 minutes remaining, momentarily ceding the place to Rosberg, and then regaining control with the session's benchmark time of 1m26.927s.Such was the Pole's speed that he was widely assumed to be carrying considerably less fuel than his rivals from the established top four teams, but the Renault R30 was clearly handling well and Kubica making the most of the green', low-grip surface.Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi was the next highest-placed interloper in eighth, ahead of Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov, who spun his Renault at the tight turn 9/10 chicane after clouting the right-hand apex kerb with a little too much enthusiasm.Next up were Force India duo Tonio Liuzzi and Paul di Resta, the Scottish newcomer acquitting himself impressively on his first outing at a grand prix meeting to complete 25 laps and finish only one-third of a second adrift of Liuzzi.Michael Schumacher had a low-key start to his weekend, his 12th best time and 1.4s deficit to Mercedes team-mate Rosberg indicating that he was running a relatively heavy fuel load.Local favourite Mark Webber was a quiet 14th, while Williams pair Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg appeared to be carrying plenty of fuel and wound up 16th and 17th.Completing a disastrous session for Sauber, Pedro de la Rosa ground to a halt at the exit of turn four with 10 minutes remaining.The three new teams filled the last six places as expected, with well-matched Lotus pairing Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen emerging comfortably ahead of their Virgin and Hispania rivals.Nonetheless Lotus had an eventful time: Trulli was sidelined for the best part of an hour by a hydraulic problem, while Kovalainen had a spin at the turn 9/10 chicane (from which he swiftly recovered with a well-executed spin-turn) and ended the session parked by the trackside at turn four.Virgin also suffered from reliability problems and Timo Glock spent most of the session in the garage, completing just eight laps and finishing at the bottom of the timesheet.Hispania ran reliably, if tentatively Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok managing a combined total of 43 laps and finishing 6.5s and 7.3s off the pace respectively.Australian GP free practice session one times1 KUBICA Renault 1m26.927s2 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m27.126s3 BUTTON McLaren 1m27.482s4 MASSA Ferrari 1m27.511s5 VETTEL Red Bull 1m27.686s6 ALONSO Ferrari 1m27.747s7 HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.793s8 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m28.014s9 PETROV Renault 1m28.114s10 LIUZZI Force India 1m28.192s11 DI RESTA Force India 1m28.537s12 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m28.550s13 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m28.572s14 WEBBER Red Bull 1m28.683s15 DE LA ROSA Sauber 1m29.465s16 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m29.712s17 HULKENBERG Williams 1m30.249s18 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m31.588s19 TRULLI Lotus 1m31.652s20 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m31.654s21 DI GRASSI Virgin 1m32.831s22 SENNA HRT 1m33.401s23 CHANDHOK HRT 1m34.251s24 GLOCK Virgin 1m34.925s
