Robert Kubica tops first practice in Melbourne

Preparations for the Australian GP started this afternoon under sunny skies.

Robert Kubica set the fastest time for Renault at the end of a rather busy opening free practice session ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and reigning World Champion Jenson Button.

All 24 drivers went for an installation lap in the first ten minutes but then waited for the track conditions to improve before embarking on some flying laps.

Paul di Resta made his Formula One debut for Force India, driving Adrian Sutil’s car, and set an impressive 11th fastest time ahead of Michael Schumacher.

There were a couple of red flags caused by Kamui Kobayashi. Forty minutes into the session, the Japanese driver ran over the kerb at turn 11 and hit the corner cone, thus breaking his front wing. The Sauber team fitted his car with a spare wing, only for it to break at turn 3 when Kobayashi retook to the track.

There was more trouble for Sauber at the end of the session with Pedro de la Rosa suffering from a clutch failure.

It was also a difficult session for Lotus and Virgin Racing.

Timo Glock was sidelined for most of the session with a fluid leak on his VR-01 while Jarno Trulli missed the first half of practice because of an hydraulic leak. Fellow Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen pulled over at the end of the session with a technical problem.

Those mechanical troubles didn’t prevent Lotus from being the fastest of the three new teams with the Virgin cars sandwiching both HRT cars at the bottom of the timesheets.