Australia 2010: Free Practice One

Renault’s Robert Kubica topped the tables after the first free practice this morning. The pre-lunch running wasn’t without incident and the circuit saw two red flags during the 90-minute test. However, while Kubica has managed to go fastest the fuel levels of each car is unknown and the true pace of the drivers won’t be known until qualifying on Saturday evening.

The bumps around the Albert Park lake circuit caught a few drivers out, as did the raising of a kerb which caused a few machines to become unstable and send the drivers hack-sawing the steering wheel off to the outer edge of the track. Of the incidents that happened in the morning, the two most notable should go to Kamui Kobayashi. The Japanese pilot caused both red flags, and both were related to the Sauber pilot’s front wing. First, Kobayashi clipped a cone on the inside of a corner which damaged the wing and sent carbon fibre across the circuit. The incident sent Kamui bouncing over the gravel although he did manage to recover and return to the pits. The track was red-flagged to allow marshals to safely clear the carbon fibre from the tarmac.

Twenty minutes later Kobayashi was back on track with a new wing fitted, but as the former-Toyota driver braked into turn three, the wing dropped down, lodged under the car and sent Kamui off the tarmac and into the gravel. Because of the way the wing appeared to simply fall from the nose at a point where there are no fixings, the FIA sent their technical delegate, Jo Bauer, down to the Sauber garage to inspect the sister C29 piloted by Pedro De La Rosa.

Pedro De La Rosa was given the all-clear to continue although the team weren’t entirely sure why the wing failed in the way that it did. Front wing failures like as seen in Melbourne can prove to be very dangerous, as the wing can get trapped under the front wheels, removing any steering and braking effect and essentially converting the driver into a passenger. And Sauber’s woes continued as their Spanish driver pulled off the track in the final ten minutes with clutch failure.

On happier tones, Force India decided to run test and reserve driver Paul Di Resta in the first practice session, the team saying that it is good to allow their reserve some time in the car just in case he should be needed to step up. Di Resta proved to be more than capable and set a lap time only 0.345s shy of team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi. Virgin Racing continued their problematic debut season in Formula One with further lack of running. Timo Glock was confined to the garage for most of the morning with an oil leak while it became public knowledge that the fuel tank of the VR-01 isn’t large enough to get to the end of races.

	Australia 2010 Free Practice One	Lap Time Fastest Time Set	Laps Set Number Laps Completed
1.	Robert Kubica Renault	1m26.927s	22 Laps
2.	Nico Rosberg Mercedes	1m27.126s	18 Laps
3.	Jenson Button McLaren	1m27.482s	22 Laps
4.	Felipe Massa Ferrari	1m27.511s	18 Laps
5.	Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing	1m27.686s	23 Laps
6.	Fernando Alonso Ferrari	1m27.747s	21 Laps
7.	Lewis Hamilton McLaren	1m27.793s	22 Laps
8.	Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso	1m28.014s	21 Laps
9.	Vitaly Petrov Renault	1m28.114s	25 Laps
10.	Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India	1m28.192s	18 Laps
11.	Paul Di Resta Force India	1m28.537s	25 Laps
12.	Michael Schumacher Mercedes	1m28.550s	19 Laps
13.	Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso	1m28.572s	21 Laps
14.	Mark Webber Red Bull Racing	1m28.683s	22 Laps
15.	Pedro De La Rosa Sauber	1m29.465s	13 Laps
16.	Rubens Barrichello Williams	1m29.712s	18 Laps
17.	Nico Hulkenberg Williams	1m30.249s	26 Laps
18.	Kamui Kobayashi Sauber	1m31.588s	5 Laps
19.	Jarno Trulli Lotus	1m31.652s	13 Laps
20.	Heikki Kovalainen Lotus	1m31.654s	26 Laps
21.	Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing	1m32.831s	25 Laps
22.	Karun Chandhok Hispania Racing	1m33.401s	24 Laps
23.	Bruno Senna Hispania Racing	1m34.251s	19 Laps
24.	Timo Glock Virgin Racing	1m34.924s	8 Laps