Australia Practice 1 – Robert Kubica takes the top spot for Renault
Robert Kubica has put himself and Renault at the top of the timesheets in the first practice session at the Albert Park circuit in Melborne. Rosberg, Button and Massa take the next three spots with Vettel taking the fifth place all with very similar times.
With the teams all using different fuel loads it’s hard to compare the times at the sharp end but further down the grid the Force India reserve driver Paul di Resta acquitted himself well finishing the session just a third of a second behind Liuzzi in his role as Friday tester for the team in place of Sutil.
The Sauber’s times mask a dreadful session for them where Kobayashi caused two red flag, de la Rosa’s car stopped out on track and the stewards want a word about one of the Kobayashi accidents, not the start to the weekend that they would have wanted given their poor showing last time out.
The new teams all put in some laps though Virgin Racing are still suffering from mechanical gremlins – seems they haven’t solved them yet then. Lotus still look the pick of the new teams though Hispania Racing/HRT Cosworth had an uneventful if rather slow session – at least they got some running in.
Times in full:
1 KUBICA Renault 1m26.927s
2 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m27.126s
3 BUTTON McLaren 1m27.482s
4 MASSA Ferrari 1m27.511s
5 VETTEL Red Bull 1m27.686s
6 ALONSO Ferrari 1m27.747s
7 HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.793s
8 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m28.014s
9 PETROV Renault 1m28.114s
10 LIUZZI Force India 1m28.192s
11 DI RESTA Force India 1m28.537s
12 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m28.550s
13 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m28.572s
14 WEBBER Red Bull 1m28.683s
15 DE LA ROSA Sauber 1m29.465s
16 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m29.712s
17 HULKENBERG Williams 1m30.249s
18 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m31.588s
19 TRULLI Lotus 1m31.652s
20 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m31.654s
21 DI GRASSI Virgin 1m32.831s
22 SENNA HRT 1m33.401s
23 CHANDHOK HRT 1m34.251s
24 GLOCK Virgin 1m34.925s
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