While Robert Kubica topped the times in free practice one Ferrari once again look to have good long-run pace.
And at this early stage it looks as though McLaren might have found a better set-up for Melbourne than they had at Bahrain. Take a closer look at the lap times from free practice one below.
Reading practice session times at Melbourne is especially difficult because of how much the track changes throughout the weekend. The track surface gets cleaner and much grippier as more rubber is laid down through the practice sessions and the race.
The fastest time in this morning’s practice session by Robert Kubica was 0.3s off Nico Rosberg’s best time in the same session last year. In qualifying last year the cars were lapping around two seconds quicker.
To the best of my knowledge all the cars in today’s first practice session used the hard compounds tyres rather than the softs.
McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes
McLaren set quick times early on but it looks like they were doing work on higher fuel loads later in the session.
Similarly Ferrari seem to have not bothered trying for a low-fuel time while the track was still very ‘green’ and concentrated on stints instead. Remember they didn’t show their hand until FP3 at Bahrain.
Felipe Massa had good, consistent pace at the end of the session. But Fernando Alonso, who was trying a new front wing, saw his run disrupted by the second red flag of the day.
The Mercedes drivers generally did shorter runs but the large gap between their best times – Nico Rosberg 1.4 seconds quicker than Michael Schumacher – suggests they were working on quite difference programmes
Renault, Force India, Sauber, Williams and Toro Rosso
Robert Kubica set the fastest time of the session and it came as part of a five-lap stint. He’d done his best time earlier as part of a longer stint as well and although we can’t be sure of his fuel load it’s an encouraging sign that Renault are heading in the right direction.
Paul di Resta was generally within range of team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi on his first appearance for Force India. But will missing the first practice session have a negative effect on Adrian Sutil’s performance? He’ll be back in the number 14 car for free practice two.
Sauber’s session was more about reliability problems than lap times. Curiously the Williams pair appeared a long way down the fastest times sheets and some way off even the Toro Rossos, which were the slowest of the established runners in Bahrain. FP2 should give us some more clues how much of that was down to fuel.
Virgin, Lotus and HRT
After their ‘test session’ appearance at Bahrain it appears as though HRT are closing the gap to the other two new teams.
Timo Glock’s Virgin was slowed by reliability problems and at this early stage Lotus appear to have stolen a march on their rivals.
Top 50 lap times
Rank | Driver | Lap time | Lap |
1 | Robert Kubica | 86.927 | 17 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | 87.126 | 13 |
3 | Robert Kubica | 87.249 | 16 |
4 | Robert Kubica | 87.327 | 15 |
5 | Jenson Button | 87.482 | 9 |
6 | Felipe Massa | 87.511 | 17 |
7 | Robert Kubica | 87.582 | 10 |
8 | Nico Rosberg | 87.659 | 9 |
9 | Sebastian Vettel | 87.686 | 23 |
10 | Fernando Alonso | 87.747 | 21 |
11 | Lewis Hamilton | 87.793 | 10 |
12 | Jenson Button | 87.798 | 7 |
13 | Robert Kubica | 87.844 | 9 |
14 | Felipe Massa | 87.868 | 14 |
15 | Sebastian Vettel | 87.891 | 10 |
16 | Fernando Alonso | 87.919 | 19 |
17 | Felipe Massa | 87.938 | 15 |
18 | Sebastien Buemi | 88.014 | 19 |
19 | Sebastian Vettel | 88.045 | 17 |
20 | Sebastian Vettel | 88.049 | 22 |
21 | Felipe Massa | 88.058 | 13 |
22 | Vitaly Petrov | 88.114 | 25 |
23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 88.192 | 18 |
24 | Sebastien Buemi | 88.294 | 15 |
25 | Sebastian Vettel | 88.342 | 16 |
26 | Nico Rosberg | 88.357 | 8 |
27 | Felipe Massa | 88.448 | 11 |
28 | Sebastien Buemi | 88.462 | 17 |
29 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 88.481 | 16 |
30 | Paul di Resta | 88.537 | 25 |
31 | Michael Schumacher | 88.55 | 12 |
32 | Jaime Alguersuari | 88.572 | 17 |
33 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 88.581 | 12 |
34 | Vitaly Petrov | 88.592 | 18 |
35 | Robert Kubica | 88.63 | 7 |
36 | Vitaly Petrov | 88.644 | 17 |
37 | Michael Schumacher | 88.659 | 8 |
38 | Fernando Alonso | 88.662 | 13 |
39 | Lewis Hamilton | 88.68 | 6 |
40 | Mark Webber | 88.683 | 9 |
41 | Felipe Massa | 88.718 | 7 |
42 | Nico Rosberg | 88.759 | 12 |
43 | Paul di Resta | 88.797 | 20 |
44 | Sebastien Buemi | 88.832 | 14 |
45 | Sebastian Vettel | 88.842 | 7 |
46 | Fernando Alonso | 88.871 | 9 |
47 | Jaime Alguersuari | 88.933 | 16 |
48 | Mark Webber | 88.968 | 20 |
49 | Sebastian Vettel | 89.12 | 15 |
50 | Mark Webber | 89.147 | 21 |
2010 Australian Grand Prix
Becken
26th March 2010, 5:19
Oh, cmon, man. How you can do this so fast?
mani
26th March 2010, 5:41
awesome work keith, i appreciate your effort. are you on track? if not, from where did you manage to collect all this data? the content is very good :)
cheers!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th March 2010, 5:58
The data is from the FIA, it’s publicly available.
Tim P
26th March 2010, 18:50
Hi Keith, I see where you get the lap times, but I’m curious how you figured out what time during the practice session the lap was completed.
I emailed you two weeks ago about some customizable charts built using HTML. Was curious if you ever took a look at it.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th March 2010, 19:50
Yes, and they look good, but getting them to work on the site will take time. Can’t promise when they’ll be working.
Tim P
26th March 2010, 19:53
If you need any assistance, I’d be more than happy to help. I love the site – keep up the great work!!
BasCB
26th March 2010, 7:08
The fastest analyses on the net. Data is publicly available, but the work is done fanatically.
looking forward to FP2 analyses in a couple of minutes.
sunseeker
26th March 2010, 8:24
Keith, you are doing tremendous job here! I just hope you’ll get something in return for all this effort! Keep up the good work.
Greetings from Croatia.
samakafuzzy
26th March 2010, 8:46
Kubica is either trying to prove a point, or that car has something up it’s sleeve……………
But in FP2 he was 11th or 12th fastest? hmmmmmmmmm
MacLeod
26th March 2010, 9:13
In the dry you see RB and Ferrari a bit beter then Mclaren. Renault is driving on very low fuel they did that in Bahrein also. Then in the Rain you see the Mclaren (ForceIndia) and Mercedes coming to the top while the Ferrari stays behind the RB. So when it’s raining the Cars are closest to each other.
GROM
26th March 2010, 15:50
How did you came up with the theory that Renault is driving on very low fuel?
shery
26th March 2010, 9:14
if he has managed to top the timesheets,he has a very strong chance to finish in top 10 atleast
Theoddkiwi
26th March 2010, 10:11
I was watching first practice on TV today, Alonso was slowing alot most laps at the second to last corner before accelerating onto the main straight again. It seemed to be some form of sandbagging, but his sector times before that were nothing special.
My impression is that Mclaren a much more competitive here.
VXR
26th March 2010, 10:47
Interestingly, Hamilton set his fastest lap on the softer tyre, whereas Button set his on the hard tyre.
I don’t think that there is much between the tyres here. Maybe some will use the hard tyre in qualifying?
Also, I posted elsewhere that the FIA and FOTA have been talking about spicing up the ‘show’. Charlie Whiting suggesting that only the two extremes of tyre (super soft and hard) be used for each GP. Also talk of rev limiting to 17,000 rpm and setting a fixed amount of time for drivers to use 18,000 rpm. McLaren also suggested success ballast to be used during qualifying only!
Matt Clinch
26th March 2010, 10:51
Keith, I see that the FIA give out timing info on there website – I assume you have to copy/paste all the times from the PDFs? But where do you get the data about what time in the session a particular lap time was set?
Matt Clinch
26th March 2010, 10:56
Also, Petrov got fined for breaking the pit lane speed limit in FP1, and Sutil the same in PF2.
Sutil fined 1600 euros – 67.8 Km/h
Petrov fined 7000 euros – 94.6 Km/h
Patrickl
26th March 2010, 11:49
That same data shows how long they were in the pits in between runs.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th March 2010, 19:51
Exactly.