Kimi Sets The Precedence


By Emma Aitken
March 14 2008

Kimi Raikkonen kicked things off nicely for this 2008 season in Australia today by completing back to back fastest laps in the finishing stages of the first free practise session. Things were as expected though with both McLaren and Ferrari dominating the top of the time sheets. Hamilton finished second with Kovalainen in fourth place.

Kimi Raikkonen kicked things off nicely for this 2008 season in Australia today by completing back to back fastest laps in the finishing stages of the first free practise session.  Lewis Hamilton had been leading the way for the most part until he was pipped to the post by Raikkonen resulting in him finishing almost half a second behind his main rival for this year.  Ferrari’s Massa had been looking like the man to take the best time of the session until he was held up by a Toyota on his penultimate fast lap putting him in fourth. But he came straight back by putting in a personal best time on his final lap and reclaimed third, just 0.01s behind Hamilton.  McLaren’s new driver, Heikki Kovalainen came in behind Massa in fourth. It’s plain to see that things are panning out as forecast with Ferrari and McLaren being way ahead of the rest of the pack.  Fifth position went to Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing who was 1.8s behind Raikkonen. This accolade may well have gone to Renault’s Alonso who was going well until he took a little unscheduled trip across the gravel. Behind him were BMW’s Kubica followed by Timo Glock who looked promising in the TF108. Sebastian Vettel went nineth fastest in the STR2B. His new team mate Bourdais had his first taste of Albert Park by finishing in 14th. Trulli finished off the top ten with Button looking encouraging for Honda in eleventh. Force India must surely have been pleased with the performance of Fisichella who brought the car home in a solid twelfth position.  Conditions were hot and humid in Melbourne which caused a few upsets to some of the cars along the way. David Coulthard stopped after five laps due to low oil pressure and Nick Heidfeld stopped on circuit in his BMW F1.08.  Nelson Piquet’s first time out in F1 resulted in another first; the red flag! The Brazilian spun at turn 13 with 20 minutes left to go. Super Aguri were just pleased to be there but Williams managed to keep them from holding the bottom positions as Nakajima only managed to get in one flying lap while his team mate Rosberg didn’t record a time at all due to technical problems with his FW30.       

1 RaikkonenFerrari1m26.461
2HamiltonMcLaren1m26.948
3MassaFerrari1m26.958
4KovalainenMcLaren1m27.114
5WebberRed Bull Racing1m28.263
6AlonsoRenault1m28.360
7KubicaBMW1m28.579
8GlockToyota1m28.913
9VettelToro Rosso1m28.957
10TrulliToyota1m29.014
11ButtonHonda1m29.124
12FisichellaForce India1m29.230
13CoulthardRed Bull Racing1m29.301
14BourdaisToro Rosso1m29.363
15BarrichelloHonda1m29.533
16HeidfeldBMW1m29.561
17SutilForce India1m30.155
18PiquetRenault1m30.357
19SatoSuper Aguri1m31.048
20DavidsonSuper Aguri1m31.771
21NakajimaWilliams1m35.053
22RosbergWilliamsNo Time