Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) has taken the first pole position of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship. The Finn was fastest in the first and final qualifying sessions as well as the morning’s practice session.

Fernando Alonso (McLaren Mercedes) will start Sunday’s Grand Prix at Albert Park from second on the grid, the Spaniard was the fastest in the second qualifying session, setting the fastest lap time of the day. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) will start from third on the grid with Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) alongside him. Takuma Sato impressed with tenth position for Super Aguri in their second season.

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations said: “It pleases me that seven different teams are in the top ten confirming that we have provided all of the teams with similar information. Judging by the lap times shown in Qualifying 2 we could be in for an exciting race. It was good to see that our predictions with the different compounds proved correct.

The medium tyre did everything we expected, providing reasonable grip with good consistency. The soft tyre was definitely quicker by a margin, as was shown by everyone in the top ten using it. How to use the two different specifications in the race will certainly keep the teams’ strategists very busy. As is normal with a softer tyre the degradation is higher, although the amount of graining we have seen with the track today was less than yesterday, as the track has improved.”

Stats of the Day 
Total amount of laps completed by all drivers: 868 
Average number of laps per car: 39 laps 
Most laps by a driver: 61 – Adrian Sutil 
Fastest lap: 1:27.353 – Felipe Massa 
Compounds: medium and soft 
Number of white spots added to tyres on Thursday: 496 

Australian Grand Prix in 2006 
Fernando Alonso (Renault) won the Australian Grand Prix in
2006 after a race which saw four periods behind the safety car.
It was a race of numerous incidents with only thirteen of the
22 starters classified as finishing. Alonso led Kimi 
Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes) over the line, with Ralf Schumacher
(Toyota) taking third.

Temperatures    Ambient   Track     Weather 
AM – Practice   21-22-24C 23-24-28C Overcast 
PM - Qualifying 21-20C    27-23-24C Cloudy/windy,overcast