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After their
tenth placed finish in Bahrain the AT&T Williams team would move to Albert
Park for the 2010 Australian Grand Prix. The opening Friday practice would
see both Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg take to the track along with
several other cars to complete his installation lap. A few drivers would
complete two installation laps while Schumacher had yet to take to the track. Michael would finally come
out and return to his pit leaving the track empty. RBS ambassador Sir Jackie
Stewart was in the Williams pit talking to Rubens and Patrick Head. For this
race Bridgestone was supplying the soft and hard compounds.
First
back out was Senna and his first timed lap was a 1m:39.329. His next lap was
a 1m:37.989 returning to his pit without improving. Next out was Virgin
Racings Di Grassi with just over an hour left in the session. More drivers
were taking to their cars as Di Grassi started a timed lap. He was joined by
Chandhok as Di Grassi set a 1m:43.581 on his first effort, while Lotus'
Kovalainen took to the track. Renault's Petrov was next out as Di Grassi
improved with a 1m:40.581. The first of the main players to come out was
Hamilton while Chandhok set a 1m:37.978 to go fastest. Kovalainen was now
fastest with a 1m:36.810 as Senna retuned to the track. Standing in for
Sutil for this session was Force India test driver Paul di Resta. He was
again out on the track while Nico Hulkenberg, De La Rosa, and Kobayashi all
come out. Hamilton was now fastest with a 1m:30.076 to be 5.9 seconds faster
than second.
Petrov was fourth with a 1m:36.754. Rosberg had taken to the track while
Chandhok set a 1m:36.256 as Di Rest went second with a 1m:33.765. Petrov was
now third, 1m:34.389, while we had Alonso, Massa, Glock, and Schumacher take
to the track. Kobayashi was now second with a 1m:31.588 as Hamilton lowered
his time with a 1m:28.680. Nico Hulkenberg was sixth, 1m:35.786, while
Kobayashi went off at Turn twelve running across the grave after hitting a
cone at the apex of the corner. His front wing was damaged seeing him run
wide but he was able to return to his pit. Schumacher was now second,
1m:30.734, with Kobayashi third from Petrov, De la Rosa, Di Resta, Rosberg,
Hulkenberg, Chandhok, Kovalainen, Senna, and Di Grassi.
The
session was red flagged to allow the debris from Kobayashi's Sauber to be
removed. With the session restarted Webber, Vettel, Kubica, and Rubens would
take to the track. Nico Hulkenberg was also out on the circuit joined by
Rosberg. Button would make his first appearance as more drivers took to the
track. Webber was sixth with a 1m:32.331 and Vettel fifth, 1m:32.188. Kubica
would move into second with a 1m:29.886. Rubens was now tenth, 1m:33.248.
Rosberg was now second with a 1m:29.278. Rubens next lap saw him in sixth
but this would become seventh as Button moved onto third, 1m:29.541. Vettel
and Webber were fourth and fifth. Hulkenberg was now down in thirteenth,
1m:33.240. Rosberg was now fastest with a 1m:28.357. Button was on a quick
lap moving to the top of the times with a 1m:27.798, as the conditions
continued to improve. Alonso was now sixth, 1m:29.603, while Rosberg and
Hamilton moved ahead of Button. Rosberg was again fastest with a 1m:27.659.
Rubens was now eighth and having returned to his pit. Hulkenberg was able to
improve to be ninth, 1m:30.644. But he would drop down the order as Button
went fastest with a 1m:27.482.
Kubica was fourth from Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Schumacher, Massa, Petrov,
Rubens, Buemi, and De la Rosa. But it was all changing very quickly seeing
Rubens and Nico drop down to twelfth and fourteenth. Kubica was now second
with a 1m:27.582. Trulli had yet to set a time as the Lotus team struggled
to fix a problem with his car. The session was again red flagged as Kobayashi was to lose his front wing at Turn three. The
wing simply collapsed under the front of the car, through no fault of
Kobayashi, seeing the Sauber driver take to the gravel ending his session.
This would seem to raise concerns as to the reason why the front wing
failed. The session would restart with Di Grassi first out followed by
Rubens. Vettel was also out on the circuit joined by Alonso with twenty five
minutes remaining. Trulli was out on the track joined by more drivers as they all
looked to get the most of the session. Hulkenberg was also out on the track
with the Williams drivers thirteenth and fourteenth with Rubens leading
Nico.
Schumacher was now sixth, 1m:28.659, with only a handful of drivers still in
their pits. Chandhok would improve with a solid lap of 1m:34.841s to be
twenty first. Trulli would run wide at the final turn taking to the grass.
Rubens would improve with a 1m:29.712 but remained thirteenth. Button was
leading the times with 1m:27.482s with Kubica second, with Rosberg third,
Hamilton fourth, Vettel fifth and Schumacher in sixth place. Petrov was now
sixth, 1m:28.644, while team-mate Kubica moved to the top of the times with
a 1m:27.327. Kovalainen would spin his Lotus at the Turn nine chicane. He
would get underway after a quick spin turn. Rubens and Nico were now
sixteenth and seventeenth. Buemi was up to sixth, 1m:28.294, while Kubica
would improve his fastest time with a 1m:26.927. Rosberg was second from
Button, Hamilton, Vettel, Buemi, Schumacher, Liuzzi, Petrov, and Alonso in
tenth.
Rubens had returned to his pit with thirteen minutes remaining. Slowest as
Glock with a 1m:34.925 to be nearly eight seconds slower than the quickest
time. De la Rosa would pull off at Turn four seeing his session end. His car
would be wheeled back behind the wall. Rubens had returned to the track with
ten minutes left. Rubens and Nico were sixteenth and seventeenth. Massa
would improve to sixth with a 1m:28.058s, but Buemi would move into this
spot. Team-mate Alguersuari was now in ninth with 1m:28.572. Massa was now
fifth, 1m:27.868, followed by Vettel. Hulkenberg was putting in a larger
number of laps completing twenty two. As the final minutes counted down
Alonso would move up to seventh, 1m:27.919, while Massa was now fourth,
1m:27.511. The session would come to an end with Kubica still fastest from
Rosberg, Button, Massa, Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Buemi, Petrov, Liuzzi, Di
Resta, Schumacher, Alguersuari, Webber, De la Rosa, Rubens, Nico, Kobayashi,
Trulli, and Kovalainen. Both of the Williams drivers were around three
seconds off the pace but it was very early to predict whether or not they
are having
problems with pace. |