Melbourne, 16th March 2007

The city of Melbourne is supposed to be in the middle of one of the worst droughts in its history and therefore the organisers were not even allowed to water the park and Albert Park therefore looked a bit yellow when the teams arrived. However, out of the blue, the humid weather broke late on Thursday night and so the first practice session of the year was held on a damp track. This meant that the high number of laps predicted for Friday, now that engines are free and four sets of tyres are allocated specifically for this day, did not materialise until the afternoon session when the track finally dried. In total the drivers get 180 minutes of track time now and although there is just one tyre manufacturer now, with Bridgestone supplying its Potenza tyres to all teams, drivers and engineers still have to assess both types of dry weather tyre to see which one to use for most of the race. Why only "most of the race" and not all of it? Because in a new rule that adds spice to the strategic decisions in the race, each driver must use both types of tyre. This will mean that most will opt to run their best tyre choice at the start and then work out how few laps to complete on the second type of tyre.


Felipe Massa completed 39 laps of the track today and finished up with the fastest time, just under four tenths quicker than his new team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, who ended up second, having driven one more lap than the Brazilian.
Third fastest and attracting a lot of media attention as he is both new to Formula 1 and is also the first black driver to compete in the sport, was Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren Mercedes. Next came the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella, with the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld in fifth place. Alex Wurz, who last raced in Formula 1 in 2005 is now in a Williams and was sixth today. The weather is predicted to be dry and sunny for tomorrow, when the first qualifying session of the year should provide a fascinating journey into the unknown.