| 09:55:14
| Welcome to F1-Live.com and our live coverage of the 2007 Formula One season. The first practice session of the Australian Grand Prix begins in a few minutes. |
| 09:56:00
| Today we have two 90 minute sessions, in which each team can run two cars. This means some will opt to run test and/or pay drivers while others will concentrate on running just the race drivers. |
| 09:56:46
| Unlike late year, there are few restrictions in Friday practice as engines can be changed ahead of the Saturday morning practice session. Each team has eight sets of dry Bridgestone tyres - four of each compound - that they can run in today’s two practice session. So hopefully, plenty of on track action. |
| 09:58:33
| However… rain has been falling this morning in Melbourne and that may change everything as they have just one set of wets and one set of extreme wets available today. |
| 10:00:08
| The 2007 season is now really underway as practice session one is go! |
| 10:00:44
| BMW Sauber test driver Senastian Vettel is the first man on track. The rain has stopped. |
| 10:01:12
| Most will complete an installtion lap and then pit for checks. |
| 10:01:40
| Albers, Sato, Sutil and Trulli head out. |
| 10:02:56
| Vettel pits the F1.07 as Davidson, Liuzzi and Wurz head out. |
| 10:03:51
| The early runners are pitting. Mark Webber has a smoking Renault engine in the Red Bull. |
| 10:04:39
| Ralf Schumacher, Heidfeld, Webber, Fisichella, Button and Nakajima on track |
| 10:05:43
| As expected, all are doing just the out lap and then pitting for checks. There is plenty of time for laps in the two Friday sessions. |
| 10:06:32
| Hamilton, Alonso, Speed and Kovalainen on out laps. |
| 10:07:10
| The circuit remains wet. |
| 10:07:55
| Ferrari have yet to send out Massa or Raikkonen. Barrichello also has not been out in his Honda. |
| 10:08:39
| Jenson Button did not pit at the end of his out lap, but completed a second lap before pitting. No one had recorded a lap time yet. |
| 10:09:59
| For information, Button claimed the Pole last year on a 1:28.081. Today there is a lot of spray so it is doubtful times will get close to this in this session at least... |
| 10:10:20
| Everyone is back in the pits. |
| 10:10:46
| Jarno Trulli heads out in his Toyota TF107. |
| 10:11:26
| Toyota have struggled in pre-season testing. So much so that Spyker racer Adrian Sutil has said he hopes to battle with Ralf and Jarno this weekend... |
| 10:12:17
| After a second installtion lap, Trulli returns to the pit lane and now Sutil heads out in the Spyker Ferrari. |
| 10:12:59
| Barrichello heads out in his Honda for the first time and is joined on track by BMW tester Sebastian Vettel. |
| 10:13:57
| Barrichello takes to the grass in his earth car... Ironic really. |
| 10:14:59
| Rubens returns the car Honda safely back to the pit lane. |
| 10:15:29
| Trulli has pitted again as team-mate Schumacher is out on track. |
| 10:16:31
| Adrian Sutil records the first timed lap of the season in the Spyker Ferrari. In the wet he is about 20s off the pace of last year. |
| 10:17:19
| Vettel records his first timed lap as Trulli heads back out and Ralf pits his Toyota. |
| 10:19:53
| Sutil and Vettel are picking up the pace as they remain on track. Nakajima is in action for the Williams Toyota squad today. |
| 10:20:19
| Trulli goes for a spin in the Toyota |
| 10:22:27
| Our timing is showing Albers on track, but it is actually Sutil in the number 20 Spyker. |
| 10:23:11
| Vettel is currently fastest for BMW on a 1:44 with Trulli now up to second ahead of Sutil. |
| 10:24:30
| Our timing has now updated to Vettel. |
| 10:25:05
| Or even Sutil in the Spyker Ferrari... |
| 10:25:30
| Fernando Alonso heads out in his McLaren Mercedes MP4-22. |
| 10:27:02
| The circuit remains wet and does not seem to be drying really. This looks like a full wet session which is a shame as it limits the laps they will run. |
| 10:27:22
| Barrichello heads back out in his Honda. |
| 10:27:37
| Heikki Kovalainen is on track in his Renault. |
| 10:29:10
| Alonso moves third fastest of the four to set a time so far. |
| 10:29:52
| Alonso starts his second timed lap and is already faster than anyone else into split one. |
| 10:30:35
| Massa and Raikkonen remain in the Ferrari pits. The team are obviously not too concerened with wet weather running. |
| 10:31:13
| Alonso moves fastest in the McLaren ahead of Vettel and Trulli. |
| 10:31:46
| Kovalainen's first timed lap moves him fourth, 2.2s down on Alonso. |
| 10:32:17
| Nakajima and Button are on track for Williams and Honda. |
| 10:32:52
| With Nakajima running in the Williams, it is Nico Rosberg who is sitting out this session. |
| 10:33:44
| With Vettel on track, Kubica is forced out of the session in his BMW. |
| 10:35:17
| Slow laps from Alonso and Kovalainen as Jenson Button moves fastest in his Honda. |
| 10:36:29
| Button has stated that he does not expect to qualify in the top ten. the RA107 has not been on the pace in pre-season testing. |
| 10:37:08
| Still, in the wet at least, the Honda is going well as Button improves on his own best and is now 1.2s clear of Alonso who has pitted the Mclaren. |
| 10:40:14
| Rookies Kovalainen and Nakajima remain on track. The rest have pitted. Kazuki Nakajima is the Williams tester this year with Alex Wurz stepping up to the race seat. The team also has Narain Karthikeyan as tester, but he really does have limited time in the car as was the case in 2006. |
| 10:42:00
| Vettel is back out on the BMW Sauber. There were reports that he and Nick Heidfeld really do not get along to such an extent a fight broke out in Baharin testing. True or not, who knows... |
| 10:43:21
| Button remains fastest from Alonso, Vettel and Trulli. |
| 10:44:40
| There is a dry line starting to form around Albert park. As the surface water is cleared, the lap times will fall. |
| 10:45:48
| Mark Webber is on track in the Red Bull Renault. The are not saying much, but the new Adrian Newey car has been way off the pace in testing and clearly won't be a factor in the early part of the season. |
| 10:47:36
| Adrian Sutil continues to pound around the track in the Spyker, but remains the slowest of those who have set a time. Sutil has replaced Tiago Monteiro in the team this year with Monteiro heading off to race in the WTCC with Seat. |
| 10:48:11
| David Coulthard joins Webber on track. Alonso is back out as is Wurz and Schumacher. |
| 10:49:17
| BMW Sauber tester Vettel is now second fastest behind Button and on a fast lap. |
| 10:50:18
| Vettel moves P1, one second ahead of Button who now heads out of the pit lane. |
| 10:51:43
| Alonso and Vettel both improve as they trade fastest laps. |
| 10:52:13
| Kimi Raikkonen heads out in his Ferrari. Fisichella is also out in the renault. |
| 10:52:34
| Now Lewis Hamilton joins the action in his McLaren. |
| 10:53:00
| Ralf Schumacher and Mark Webber post times. |
| 10:53:49
| Alonso is fastest from Vettel by a small margin as the BMW tester pits. |
| 10:54:10
| Kovalainen improves to fourth fastest. |
| 10:54:47
| Alonso and Raikkonen are both on fast laps. |
| 10:55:30
| A slow end to the lap for Raikkonen but it was just his first timed lap of the session. |
| 10:55:59
| Alonso improves his own best and is now four-tenths clear of the field. |
| 10:57:10
| Our new look timing screen has a new feature. Click on a driver name or team to get the stats.... |
| 10:57:46
| Now Raikkonen hooks up his second lap and moves P1 in his Ferrari. Team-mate Massa is now on track. |
| 10:58:07
| Hamilton records his first lap in the McLaren. |
| 10:59:08
| Alonso pits as Ralf Schumacher moves second fastest. The times will continue to improve as the circuit gains grip. |
| 11:00:23
| Raikkonen pits the F2007 as Hamilton and Heidfeld improve. |
| 11:01:23
| Heidfeld ans Massa move second and third fastest respectively. |
| 11:03:14
| Massa gains a position and it is now a Ferrari one-two at the head of the timesheets. |
| 11:03:54
| No one has run slicks yet in this session. But the circuit continues to dry. |
| 11:04:53
| It looks as if the session will end up with a dry circuit. |
| 11:05:24
| Massa joins Raikkonen in the Ferrari pit. |
| 11:05:58
| Nick Heidfeld remains on track. Liuzzi heads out in his Toro Rosso Ferrari. |
| 11:06:50
| Now Heidfeld improves and moves P1. The circuit is now quite dry with some wet areas just in the slower corners. The lap times are stilla round ten seconds down on a full dry time. |
| 11:09:42
| Heidfeld improves again. Just the BMW driver, Liuzzi and Albers on track at the moment. |
| 11:10:52
| The Super Aguri Honda duo of Sato and Davidson have yet to set a lap time, the same for Barrichello in the works Honda. |
| 11:11:15
| Albers is now the only driver on track with 20 minutes of this session remaining. |
| 11:11:29
| Alonso heads back out in his McLaren. |
| 11:13:18
| Fisichella, Davidson, Barrichello, Trulli and Wurz go back out. |
| 11:13:41
| Following his pit stop, Alonso is now on his first timed lap. |
| 11:14:55
| Heidfeld's time remains the fastest so far by some margin. The BMW Sauber team proved very fast in testing, but also pretty fragile in terms of reliability. |
| 11:15:25
| Alonso improves and moves to within a second of Heidfeld's best. |
| 11:15:41
| Now Wurz takes P3 for Williams Toyota. |
| 11:16:59
| Davidson's first timed lap in the SA07 moves him sixth fastest. Davidson tested with Honda in recent years and gets his break with Hondas second team this year. |
| 11:18:17
| Takuma Sato is the only driver yet to set a time. |
| 11:19:52
| Now Sato is on track in the SA Honda. |
| 11:20:46
| Davidson improves to fourth as Alonso also makes gains but not position in his McLaren. |
| 11:22:40
| Lewis Hamilton moves third in his McLaren, a gain of five spots. It remains to be seen if anyone will gamble on slicks with less than ten minutes remaining. |
| 11:23:00
| Ah here we go - Mark Webber is on slicks in the Red Bull Renault... |
| 11:23:37
| Sure enough, Webber moves P1 by some five seconds. You have to wonder why they did not run them sooner. Now all pitting for slicks... |
| 11:25:40
| Vettel moves second in his BMW with five minutes remaining. Webber takes to the grass in the Red Bull Renault. |
| 11:26:11
| Now Button vaults second fastest ahead of Vettel and Nakajima. |
| 11:26:25
| Both Barrichello and Button on hot laps. |
| 11:27:31
| Barrichello and Button claim P2 and P3. Massa and Alonso on track but Raikkonen is in the pits. |
| 11:27:54
| Button moves fastest ahead of Nakajima as the lap times tumble. |
| 11:28:33
| Now Vettel is fastest from Button and Nakajime. Heidfeld, Raikkonen and the Toyota duo of Schumacher and Trulli remain in the pits. |
| 11:28:45
| Massa is now on a fast lap. |
| 11:29:05
| And Alonso is also looking to improve in the final minutes. |
| 11:29:26
| Massa moves back to the top of the the timesheets for Ferrari. |
| 11:29:57
| Now Alonso takes over the P1 spot by an impressive margin. |
| 11:30:10
| The chequered flag is out. |
| 11:30:50
| Massa pits as Alonso continues on his final lap of the session. |
| 11:32:10
| Alonso does not improve on his final lap but is fastest overall from Massa, Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Nakajima and Coulthard. |
