Webber sets the pace on home turf

The 2011 F1 World Championship officially got underway today with a first ninety minute free practice session on Melbourne’s Albert Park track.

Lotus’ third driver Karun Chandhok started the season with a bang… losing the rear of his car at Turn 4 and hitting the wall. He damaged the front-end of his car and picked up a right-rear puncture. As he tried to crawl to the pits, he told his team on the radio “I just lost it”. He stopped on track a few seconds later.

Meanwhile, most of the drivers went out for some installation laps and came back in the pits. After fifteen minutes, Virgin’s Timo Glock and both HRT drivers were the only ones yet to take the track. Virgin indicated it suspected a possible gearbox problem on Glock’s car, while HRT’s mechanics were still working on their cars.

The session then went quietly as further installation laps were completed.

With 52 minutes remaining, Williams’ rookie Pastor Maldonado was the first to start and stop the clock, and posted the first timed lap of the season. Massa, Sutil and Toro Rosso’s reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo quickly followed suit.

Massa put his name on the timesheets but had a moment at Turn 3 and went through the gravel trap. A few minutes later, he was demoted from the top by Red Bull’s Mark Webber as the session gently came to life.

Lewis Hamilton then went slightly faster at the wheel of his heavily revised McLaren, but Webber immediately upped the pace and set a new benchmark, eight tenths of a second faster than the Briton.

Hamilton subsequently improved and came within two tenths of a second of the Australian. World Champion Sebastian Vettel joined the action with forty minutes remaining and swiftly moved up into the top five. He was up in P2 as he completed his seventh lap. He took the lead two laps later with a 1’27’’869, which he further lowered to a 1’27’’739.

Fernando Alonso waited for the last twenty minutes to post some timed laps and move up the order. He quickly matched the pace of Vettel and was only ten thousandths of a second shy of the German’s fastest time.

Nico Rosberg moved up in third place in the final part of the session as most of the drivers were back on track. Both Red Bulls upped the pace to retake P1 and P2 with some margin on their rivals. Vettel set a fastest lap time of 1’27’’128 but was beaten by his teammate as the chequered flag was waved. Webber topped the session thanks to a 1’26’’831, three tenths of a second faster than Vettel.

Alonso was third fastest, nine tenths of a second away from Webber. Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello completed the top five. Button and Hamilton were sixth and seventh fastest for McLaren. Schumacher, Kobayashi and Petrov rounded off the top ten.

Kovalainen was easily the fastest of the ‘new teams’ as he lapped more than two seconds faster than the Virgins. Both HRTs are yet to be seen on track.