It has begun!
The 2007 Formula One season got underway today in Melbourne.
The new Practice format means the sessions are extended out to 90 minutes each and in addition, they are not using race engines on Friday, so we have seen an incredible amount of action over the three hours today. Sensational stuff - a great rule change for F1 (for once) putting the fans and viewers first.
…Practice 1 times…
Session 1 began with a wet track, meaning some unusual topsy-turvy times but as the session progressed, the rain passed and the track dried out. The times came tumbling as all the teams pulled out the big guns right towards the tail end of the session. Fernando Alonso put in a last minute run to snatch the top spot away from Felipe Massa. The season was already shaping up to be a Ferrari versus McLaren battle.
…Practice 2 times…
The session began with exchanges between Ferrari and McLaren, with a few Ferrari have stepped in with a pretty convincing lock out of the front row with their 1-2 position in Practice 2. The most notable effort comes from Lewis Hamilton however, in P3. This bloke has talent. Fresh to F1, a rookie and his first outing in a race weekend environment and answers back at the critics with what was a near flawless drive and a great result.
Fisichella looked strong until unreliability struck and he was forced to park the car. BMW and Williams too were not too far off the pointy end of the grid. Fernando Alonso finished down in 7th position, but team manager Ron Dennis was quoted afterwards as saying his time was not indicative of true pace as they were running fuel and tyre simulation for the race environment. Quiet confidence - but we’ve seen that from McLaren before.
Super Aguri, no doubt much to the annoyance of Honda executives, had both cars finish ahead of their parent team. That will be an interesting post-practice meeting.
At the moment, it is still anyone’s game - nobody knows what fuel loads are being run, what simulations are carried out and as is usually the case with practice sessions, particularly on Friday, it could all be totally meaningless come Qualifying and Race day.
All I know is so far, its been a sensational opener to the Formula One season. Coverage runs for the three days and we are joined again by Murray Walker.
Going to be a long weekend sitting in front of the television.
