Race analysis - Ferrari out in front

Ferrari’s 193rd victory came courtesy of its debutant Finn Kimi Raikkonen, and he made it look oh so easy. As he started from the front, team mate Felipe Massa was at the back. The Brazilian had an electronic problem in his gearbox’s management, and then Ferrari elected to change his engine and thus he moved further backwards.

While Kimi opted for the medium-medium-soft tyre choices, Massa was on a single-stop strategy and thus started on the softs as he was likely to get held up in traffic early on. This was indeed the case as he battled his way past the Red Bulls and Hondas, and after his stop on lap 29, on went the mediums. If all Raikkonen had to worry about was the lack of a radio and the odd lapse of concentration, he really didn’t have much to worry about at all. McLaren left Melbourne leading the world championship, with 14 points to Ferrari’s 13, but however much Ron Dennis might have bleated about the possible effect of BMW’s strategy for fast-starting Nick Heidfeld the writing on the wall indicated that the Ferrari was a second a lap faster in race trim. Raikkonen reeled off a string of fastest laps early on, his best being 1m 25.235s compared to Fernando Alonso’s 1m 26.314s and Lewis Hamilton’s 1m 26.351s. Even had the silver arrows had a clear run at the first corner, there was no way they would have challenged the red car for victory this day. On the positive side, the MP4-22s were reliable and quick enough to leave everyone else behind. BMW Sauber should have garnered nine points for their afternoon’s efforts, but the gearbox failure that stopped Robert Kubica on the 36th lap accounted for four of them. Nevertheless, five points for Nick Heidfeld’s fourth place got the team’s campaign off to a strong start even if Dennis accused them of ‘showboating’ with Heidfeld’s low-fuel strategy. It paid off insofar as it got him well clear of all McLaren’s pursuers once things had settled down, and enabled him to take the risk of using his soft Bridgestones from the start, whereas most opted for medium-medium-soft in their three stints. The fact that Heidfeld finished was a great relief following the team’s gearbox problems from testing, but the gremlins struck Kubica and locked his transmission in fifth. In contrast to Heidfeld, Kubica had intended to use his soft tyres for a short final stint. Fifth and 10th places for Renault came as a blow after their previous results in Melbourne, and the fastest laps indicated that on sheer pace they have been overtaken not just by Ferrari and McLaren, but also by BMW Sauber and Williams. Like everyone bar Felipe Massa, Heidfeld, Alex Wurz in the Williams, Honda’s Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen in the two Renaults ran medium-medium-soft tyres. Fisichella did well to resist the intense pressure from Massa in the closing stages, but Kovalainen admitted freely that there was little to remember and much to forget about a debut in which he made too many mistakes. There is plenty of work to do in this camp. Nico Rosberg’s performance in the Williams FW29 was a massive fillip for the team. He made some good moves, made the most of his chance to pass Ralf Schumacher and set the fifth-fastest lap to endorse the view that the new car is a lot quicker than last year’s. It’s also much more reliable. Team mate Alex Wurz was unable to emulate him as he spent most of his race stuck in traffic, and later became the launch pad when Red Bull’s David Coulthard misjudged his overtaking move in Turn Three and went right over the top of the FW29’s nose. Toyota have always said that they don’t mind if they get beaten by a customer using their engine, and that’s exactly what happened as Rosberg led Schumacher home. After their strong qualifying performance many suspected that the Toyotas might have been running light, but they weren’t. They didn’t stop until the 24th and 25th laps. Unfortunately, they weren’t particularly quick, setting the 12th and 13th-fastest laps on the 1m 28s borderline. That put them behind Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Williams and Red Bull. Towards the end of the race there was also a potential reliability problem when Schumacher’s engine began to lose pneumatic pressure. Trulli also had a brake problem. Despite all that, Toyota had a lot more to crow about than Honda, who had an appalling weekend. They opted to start Button on medium tyres, then soft, then medium, and Barrichello on soft, medium and medium. It didn’t make much difference. Button struggled with a big fuel load in the early going, and his RA107 then developed huge understeer. He asked for a front-wing adjustment, but because of a radio problem nobody responded. When he pitted again they did put plenty of wing on but it made no difference. To compound that he got a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding. Barrichello, meanwhile, smacked a wall early on while he was being held up by Button, and though he later got past his team mate he could not do better than 11th place. He set the 14th-fastest lap, Button the 17th, so Honda clearly have a lot of aerodynamic work to do in the coming months. The race was also a disappointment for the Super Aguri team, whose qualifying promise of 10th and 11th places translated into only 12th and 16th places for Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson. The latter’s SA07 bogged down at the start, dropping him to the tail of the field and later leaving him vulnerable to attack by Adrian Sutil’s Spyker. He was launched into the air, and winded when the car landed. Despite suffering some back pain, and the car sustaining a reasonable amount of bodywork damage, he did achieve his aim of finishing a Formula One race. Sato, meanwhile, struggled with balance problems, but clung on to chase Barrichello home. With Mark Webber seventh on the grid, Red Bull entertained hopes of a decent points haul but left with nothing. Webber’s race began to go wrong with a sticking fuel filler cap during his first pit stop, after which he lost pace. He had an off-course moment as a result, and then spun in the pit lane while coming in for his second stop. While he at least finished, however, team mate David Coulthard aviated over Wurz’s Williams after an ill-judged passing move in Turn Three on the 46th lap. Not a race for them to remember. In the Toro Rosso camp Tonio Liuzzi lost a place to team mate Scott Speed after getting boxed in in the first corner, lost more time in early traffic, and had to wait until the final stages to get into his rhythm. At one stage he took nine seconds off Webber, and beat Button on his way to 14th. Speed had kept in front of the Italian until lap 29, despite worsening understeer. The cause of that identified itself that lap when two deflating front tyres dragged him into the gravel and out of the race. Finally, Spyker had an up and down race. Adrian Sutil finished 17th on his debut but Christijan Albers, who had started from the pit lane in the spare car, retired on lap 10 when he went off the road into a gravel trap after missing his braking point. Sutil fell back after his clash with Davidson, and after a drive-through penalty for failing to observe blue flags, he blotted his copybook by crossing the white line at the exit of the pit lane, incurring a second penalty. Schumacher or no Schumacher, Ferrari convincingly demonstrated that they remain the team to beat. “A new chapter in our history has got off to a very good start,” Jean Todt said. “The chassis-engine package proved to be competitive, the team worked with dedicated professionalism and the drivers were impeccable. This all means that we can look forward to the rest of the championship with prudent optimism, even if we have seen there is some very strong and well prepared opposition and some very talented young drivers. We have not yet reached the desired level of reliability and we have to do a lot of work on this as well as on improving our performance. I was very happy to get two telephone calls, the first from Michael (Schumacher) as I was going up to the podium, which I handed to Kimi and the other from Luca di Montezemolo (Ferrari president) who was jumping for joy as if this was our first win in a decade. And indeed that is the feeling for us all!” Rivals have been warned. By David Tremayne

Standings

Drivers
K.Räikkönen	10
F.Alonso	8
L.Hamilton	6
N.Heidfeld	5
G.Fisichella	4
F.Massa	3
N.Rosberg	2
R.Schumacher	1
J.Trulli	0
H.Kovalainen	0
R.Barrichello	0
T.Sato	0
M.Webber	0
V.Liuzzi	0

Constructors
McLaren-Mercedes	14
Ferrari	13
BMW	5
Renault	4
Williams-Toyota	2
Toyota	1
Honda	0
Super Aguri-Honda	0
Red Bull-Renault	0
STR-Ferrari	0
Spyker-Ferrari	0

AUSTRALIAN GP RACE RESULT

Australian Grand Prix race result (58 laps)
1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1h25m28.770s

2. ALONSO McLaren +7.2s

3. HAMILTON McLaren +18.5s

4. HEIDFELD BMW +38.7s

5. FISICHELLA Renault +66.4s

6. MASSA Ferrari +66.8s

7. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap

8. SCHUMACHER Toyota +1 lap

9. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap

10. KOVALAINEN Renault +1 lap

11. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap

12. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap

13. WEBBER Red Bull +1 lap

14. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +1 lap

15. BUTTON Honda +1 lap

16. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +2 lap

17. SUTIL Spyker +2 lap

R. WURZ Williams +10 laps

R. COULTHARD Red Bull +10 laps

R. KUBICA BMW +22 laps

R. SPEED Toro Rosso +30 laps

R. ALBERS Spyker +48 laps

Fastest Lap: RAIKKONEN 1m25.235s (Lap 41)

Kimi takes victory while Hamilton shines

Michael who? Kimi Raikkonen cruised to victory in the season-opening Australian GP to prove that there is life at Ferrari without Michael Schumacher.

The Finn cruised to victory, leading from start to finish in his first race for the team.

Reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso was second, joined on the podium by the astonishing Lewis Hamilton who held off his illustrious team-mate until their second and final pit-stops. It was a superb drive from the youngster, who barely put a wheel off line all weekend, and one which will surely herald the start of a long and successful F1 career.

BMW impressed but were denied a double points finish by Robert Kubica's gearbox failure. However Nick Heidfeld took fourth place, with Giancarlo Fisichella in fifth and a one-stopping Felipe Massa in sixth.

Race Report: It was perfect weather for the start of the Australian GP with an ambient temperature of 22C, a track temperature of 40C and bright sunshine in Albert Park.

Felipe Massa had opted for an engine change and a start at the back of the grid while Christian Albers would start the race from the pitlane. Of the front-runners, only Heidfeld would start on the softer Bridgestone tyre.

As the red lights went out Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri failed to get going and the whole field streamed past - a throttle sensor problem was the likely cause.

At the front Raikkonen led away easily, Nick Heidfeld fancied his chances from P3 on the grid and jumped inside Alonso. Behind them, Robert Kubica got the drop on Lewis Hamilton and the two indulged in a typical GP2 start with Hamilton switching from tight up the inside to wide on the outside to get back past Kubica.

Kubica actually did Hamilton a favour because forcing him out wide meant that he not only swept back past the Pole, he also overtook Alonso who was buried under Heidfeld's rear wing.

For a grand prix that saw four Safety Cars in 2006, there was great orderliness on the opening lap and not much positional change. At the end of the first lap the order was:

Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Hamilton, Alonso and Robert Kubica in 5th place. Giancarlo Fisichella was 6th, Webber 7th, Ralf Schumacher 8th, Sato 9th, Trulli 10th and Heiki Kovalainen 11th. Button had moved up to 13th spot while Felipe Massa was 18th.

At the back of the field Davidson and Albers had a coming together, spinning the Spyker around, though both cars were able to continue.

Immediately Massa tried to make progress through the field but was held up by David Coulthard's Red Bull, while Rubens Barrichello was using all the road and brushing the barriers behind team-mate Jenson Button but, frustratingly, couldn't find a way past.

On Lap 6 Massa looked to have turned the revs up on his Ferrari and cruised past DC on the straight, but he was now stuck behind the intra-Honda battle. At the front, Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen had established a four second gap to Heidfeld, who was 2.8 seconds clear of Hamilton with Alonso in close attendance.

Hamilton was clearly pushing hard and on Lap 7 put two wheels of the race track kicking up the dirt, just as Raikkonen lowered the Fastest Lap to 1:27.075.

Jenson Button's small train of Barrichello, Massa and Coulthard continued, but it was noticeable that Massa was positioning his car on the straight to take advantage of clear air through his radiators.

Lap 10, and Raikkonen lowered the Fastest Lap to 1:26.577. His only concern was that his radio had begun to malfunction from the very start of the race and so through the course of the grand prix communication would be difficult and involve a lot of pit boards.

Lap 11 and Christian Albers gained the distinction of being the first retirement of 2007 and for a less than conventional reason. He was trying to fish out an earplug that had come loose in his helmet, missed his braking point and went off the road at Turn 3. With new Safety Car rules introduced this season (and supposedly a 56% chance of having one deployed) the pitlane held its breath to see how the situation would unfold. The answer was that we would have to wait at least for the second race of the season before seeing the new-style SC as Albers' car was wheeled back by the marshals.

By Lap 12 Raikkonen had established a ten second lead and there had been no positional changes in the top ten, though Trulli was clearly being held up behind his Toyota team-mate Ralf Schumacher. At this stage of the season it is clearly not a good idea to give your team-mate an easy ride.

Nick Heidfeld was the first man to pit at the end of Lap 14 and he re-emerged from the pitlane behind Mark Webber. On the same lap Rubens finally got past Jenson and three laps later Massa would pass him, too.

Though there was indecision in the Ferrari pit on exactly when Kimi Raikkonen would be coming in - and as a result on Lap 18 both McLarens were actually faster than the Ferrari for the first time in the race - he eventually came in at the end of Lap 18.

Which left us with a rookie leading the Aussie GP on just the 19th lap of the race! Lewis Hamilton has seemed little fazed by anything F1 has thrown at him so far and leading his first F1 race was just another early career milestone.

Giancarlo Fisichella pitted from 6th place and had a 'moment' with Jarno Trulli when Fisi emerged at the end of the straight, the Toyota trying to drive round the outside of the Renault in Turn 1, but running out of circuit as Fisi let his car slip wide. Robert Kubica pitted a lap later and leapfrogged past Heidfeld to take an effective P4 off the German.

The McLarens pitted on Laps 22 and 23 and Lewis Hamilton kept his place in front of Alonso despite being held up by Spyker's Adrian Sutil (for which he was given a drive-through penalty).

The positions on Lap 26 were then:

Raikkonen leading, 11.7 seconds clear of Hamilton, who was 1.8 in front of Alonso. The Spaniard had a gap of over ten seconds to Robert Kubica in fourth place. Heidfeld was 5th, Fisichella 6th, Kovalainen 7th, Rosberg 8th and Felipe Massa in 9th. These last three drivers had yet to stop for their first pit-stop.

Immediately afterwards Kovalainen and Rosberg pitted together and, unusual for a Renault pit-stop, Rosberg's Williams was able to take advantage and the German overtook Kovalainen at the exit of the pitlane.

Massa finally pitted at the end of Lap 29 and rejoined in 10th place. A lap later and Scott Speed parked his double punctured STR-Ferrari on the infield grass, the second retirement of 2007.

The pit-stop re-shuffle was complete by Lap 32 with Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber losig out massively. While Trulli had been quicker than Ralf, the remaining Schumacher was now 7th while Jarno was back in 11th. Mark Webber, who'd been running in 7th was now down to 14th.

From 13th on the grid Heiki Kovalainen was now up to 9th, but his afternoon was about to get ragged. On Lap 35 he took to the grass, running too quickly in his efforts to get back on terms with Nico Rosberg. Rosberg himself was pressuring Ralf Schumacher for 7th place and on Lap 37 he squeezed past the Toyota at Turn 10.

At which point 7th place became 6th place as Robert Kubica retired his BMW from fourth position with the team's typical problem of this year, a broken gearbox.

Kimi Raikkonen was flying and on Lap 38 he lapped team-mate Felipe Massa, going on to lower the Fastest Lap to 1:26.172. On Lap 40 he reduced it to 1:25.929 and as if to prove a point lowered it to an incredible 1:25.235 on Lap 41.

Kovalainen then spun his Renault on the entry into Turn 1 and gave up 8th place to Felipe Massa.

The closest racing was between the McLaren duo with Fernando Alonso gradually closing up on Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton was about to pit for the second time on Lap 42 when he came up against Takuma Sato doing his usual trick of not looking in his mirrors. That delay, and the fact that Alonso had the fuel to run three laps longer gave the World Champion a clear edge and he was able to rejoin in P2.

Raikkonen's second pit-stop was problem-free, but he had a small off-track excursion between Turns 3 &4 while fiddling with his brake balance and not paying attention. He carried on regardless, just as Mark Webber did, after doing an impressive 360 degree spin in the pitlane without hitting anything.

In a relative drama-free race David Coulthard then gave the TV highlights packagers something to show. He had got ahead of team-mate Mark Webber and was closing fast on the Williams-Toyota of Alex Wurz and decided to take the Austrian going into Turn 3. "I was just too fast for the corner," admitted the Scot afterwards. "I thought it was an opportunity but it turned into not an opportunity."

Wurz didn't give him the room needed for an over-ambitious pass and the Red Bull was launched over the top of the Williams in dramatic fashion, Wurz narrowly avoiding getting an RB3 in the helmet.

The positions on Lap 50 were: Raikkonen leading, 13 seconds clear of Alonso, who had six seconds on Hamilton. Heidfeld followed in fourth, Fisichella was 5th and the one-stopping Felipe Massa was in 6th place followed by Rosberg in 7th, Ralf Schumacher in 8th, Jarno Trulli in 9th and Kovalainen in 10th.

Felipe Massa had got past both Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher by staying out on track in his heavily-fuelled Ferrari - his drive was all the evidence needed that the softer Bridgestone tyre (which teams must run for one stint in the race) could last half a race distance.

Though Massa closed up on Fisichella's fifth place at a great rate of knots, he spent the last five laps trailing the Renault round, sometimes 0.4 back, sometimes 0.3 back, but never finding a way past.

At the flag, Raikkonen backed off to finish just 7.2 seconds clear of Alonso and claim his first win since the Japanese GP of 2005. Alonso was pushed all the way by his team-mate Hamilton who finished an outstanding debut race in third place, the most impressive debut for a Brit in 40 years.

Heidfeld took fourth place while Fisichella was able to hold on to 5th with Massa 6th, Rosberg 7th and a slowing Ralf Schumacher in 8th place

Though the sheer pace of the Ferrari at times looked capable of overwhelming the McLaren there is still a question mark over the cooling ability of the new car. That question mark can easily be removed by the Scuderia at the next race in Malaysia, normally the hottest they'll run all year and a great tester of engines and driver endurance.

It was a perfect start to the Championship for Raikkonen. A few more races like this and his elevation in the Ferrari driver hierarchy will be confirmed.

Alonso: Beating Ferrari won't be easy

Fernando Alonso admits it could be difficult for McLaren to beat Kimi Raikkonen to the victory at Sunday's Australian GP.

Raikkonen, who like Alonso is making his debut for his new team this weekend, claimed pole position for the season-opening race in a time of 1:26.07, which put him 0.42s ahead of Alonso.

However, despite the rather large deficit over a single lap, Alonso isn't ready to give up on the race victory, although he does concede that it won't be easy beating Raikkonen come Sunday afternoon.

"They have been very strong here in the long runs," Alonso said during Saturday's post-qualifying press conference.

"I think to be honest we have to say they should be quicker tomorrow and we should be having a little bit hard time if we want to beat them.

"We saw today Felipe (Massa) stopped with a gearbox problem and it is 58 laps and you have to be there. We have to push them and fingers crossed we will be on the podium tomorrow."

Massa suffered gearbox problems in Saturday's qualifying, which saw him finish 16th on the grid.

And the Brazilian's problems have led to Raikkonen being cautious about his chances of claiming the victory in Australia.

"I think we have a good package, we are confident for the race and as long as everything works well and we don't have any problems we should be okay, but so many things can happen," the Finn said.

"We do the best we can and hopefully we can win, but for sure the others will try and beat us. It will be close but we will do the best we can."

The two lead drivers, though, could come under some pressure from BMW's Nick Heidfeld, who claimed third place on the Melbourne grid.

"I am happier after speaking to some people in the team who assure me we have done the right thing," he said.

"It was quite good, and with similar parts in the test it was a concern. We lost time in testing which wasn't ideal but tomorrow is what counts."

And although the German is hoping for a good race, he believes Renault's drivers, Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen, could easily get into the mix on Sunday afternoon.

"My view is that Ferrari are still ahead, we thought that before we came here, but I am a bit surprised Renault was not a bit quicker today, I expected them to be there as well," the German added.

"But we will see in the race tomorrow. We don't know what fuel other people are running but we can be pleased."

Kimi takes first pole for Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen got his Ferrari debut off to a flying start with pole position for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Finn, who joined Ferrari from McLaren at the end of last season, effortlessly stepped into Michael Schumacher's shoes to drive his Ferrari around the Albert Park circuit and right into pole position in a time of 1:26.072.

And although double World Champion, and Raikkonen's replacement at McLaren, Fernando Alonso tried to seize the advantage, he fell short by 0.42 seconds.

Third place on the grid went to BMW's Nick Heidfeld, who put in a strong final lap to take P3 off McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton who had an almost perfect start to his F1 career.

Robert Kubica ensured both BMW's got into the top five, while 2005 Australian Grand Prix winner, Giancarlo Fisichella, qualified in sixth place.

Qualifying Report

Qualifying 1

Though there had been rain in the morning practice, by the time the teams lined up for Session 1 of Qualifying, the circuit was dry with an ambient temperature of 21C and a track temperature of 38C. The big factor was the strong wind slanting across the circuit, making the ill-handling cars even more difficult to drive.

Though Ferrari had continued their occupancy of the P1 slot in morning practice, the sensation of the morning practice was Anthony Davidson posting a genuine P4 in his Super Aguri. The speed of both Super Aguris made it increasingly likely that both Williams and Spyker would contest the eligibility of the "customer cars" run by Scuderia Toro Rosso and the Super Aguri team, which use an update of last year's Honda. However this wouldn't interfere with the progess of the GP weekend or the running of the cars.

Christian Albers started the season off for Spyker with the very first timed lap. It was the first time in five seasons that F1 has started with the previous season's qualifying format and Albers put in an atrocious 1:32.305, the wind not helping the car's oversteer in some corners.

Davidson then lowered this to 1:29.211, which Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher couldn't beat, though team-mate Jarno Trulli could with a 1:28.709. David Coulthard lowered this to 1:28.579 for Red Bull and then his new team-mate Mark Webber sliced that down to 1:27.799.

Lewis Hamilton showed no signs of nerves on his first run with three purple (fastest) sectors and a 1:26.674, the lap was so good that Fernando Alonso could only manage P2 behind him.

Kimi Raikkonen came out before Felipe Massa took to the track and despite a mistake in Turn 15 took the P1 slot with a 1:26.644, while Massa could only manage P4 behind the two McLarens.

With three minutes to run the bottom of the timesheet looked like:

15. Davidson - Super Aguri

16. Liuzzi - STR

17. Sato - Super Aguri

18. Button - Honda

19. Sutil - Spyker

20. Albers - Spyker

21. Heidfeld (no timed lap yet) - BMW

22. Kubica (no timed lap yet) - BMW

In the closing minutes the two BMWs jumped into the top five, and a fast lap from Davidson pushed the two Toyotas into the bottom six and they would quite clearly have to run again. Takuma Sato then joined him in the safe zone, pushing both the Hondas into deeper trouble.

A heroic lap from Jenson Button got him a (very temporary) P11 place and pushed Alex Wurz into the dropzone in his Williams-Toyota. Wurz then improved as did the two Toyotas, which put David Coulthard's Red Bull in danger. Despite two good early sectors, a slow final sector meant the Scot couldn't escape in time.

Rubens Barrichello didn't have the speed of Button and sank with the tailenders. The last six would be:

17. Barrichello

18. Speed

19. Coulthard

20. Liuzzi

21. Sutil

22. Albers

Just escaping the drop were Button in 15th and the Williams-Toyota of Nico Rosberg in 16th. The Super Aguris had 8th and 12th, the Hondas 15th and 17th, and the Ferraris 1st and 5th. Barrichello and Coulthard were the major casualties.

Qualifying 2

There was silence for the first two and a half minutes of the second session until Nico Rosberg roared down the pitlane.

Toyota then nominated themselves for P-F1's much discussed race-by-race award (see Winners and Losers feature on Sunday) by letting Jarno Trulli out of the pits with his rear jack still attached at the back of the car. It detached itself near the pitlane exit but is bound to make all the TV highlights. A timed lap with it on the back would have given the FIA an interesting quandry as it doesn't conform to F1 aero rules.

No harm was done, although that clearly wasn't the case with Ralf Schumacher who took 95 seconds to crawl round the first sector in his Toyota and then 75 seconds to complete the second. The FIA timing actually registered Ralf as a 'STOP' on the timing displays but quite evidently he made it back to the pits and wasn't stopped out on the circuit.

Rosberg took the first pole, lowered by Davidson to 1:27.228, reduced by Webber to 1:26.623 ( clearly showing DC what the car was capable of). Giancarlo Fisichella took it down to 1:26.545 and then Robert Kubica took a chunk off to make it 1:25.882.

Lewis Hamilton created more purple sectors to take P1 with 1:25.577 and yet again Alonso had to settle for P2 behind him.

With four minutes left to run the positions were:

9. Davidson

10. Kovalainen

11. Wurz

12. Button

13. Rosberg

14. Raikkonen (no timed lap yet)

15. Massa (no timed lap yet)

16. Ralf Schumacher

Raikkonen then put himself in an easy P3, but all eyes switched to Felipe Massa's car. On his hot lap Massa had a slow first sector, only 29.2 compared to Raikkonen's 28.5 and way off the pace - and the car then slowed to a stop and Massa got out. A dreadful start to his F1 season.

Ralf Schumacher jumped into P9, while Jenson Button improved his time with another un-Button like lap, throwing the car around as if it were last year's Midland. All he got for his troubles was a doomed P14, but even then Jenson was pleasantly surprised compared to the pace he had imagined he'd be going.

Kovalainen didn't manage to improve his time despite going out again and so the cars to be eliminated were:

11. Davidson

12. Rosberg

13. Kovalainen

14. Button

15. Wurz

16. Massa

Massa's demise meant that 10th placed Takuma Sato had put a Super Aguri into the final shoot-out for the first time in their history (none too surprising since it is the 06 Honda that Jenson Button put on the 06 Melbourne pole). Mark Webber had got his Red Bull into P7 making DC's effort even more shabby, though he did have the inspiration of his Aussie home support.

Felipe Massa was the major casualty of qualifying, while Heiki Kovalainen's poor effort was similarly unexpected.

In the latter stages of the session Fernando Alonso (with no apparent danger or need) went out and bettered Hamilton's time for P1, and Nick Heidfeld took P2. Interesting to note that only Hamilton and Raikkonen had used the minimum number of laps to get to Q3 - both needed just six.

Qualifying 3

Raikkonen maintained the Ferrari tradition of leading the field out for the final session. The cars cruised until Fisichella led off the pole-grabbing attempts. He was closely followed by the two McLarens. These cars, Raikkonen and the two BMWs would all make two attempts at pole.

Fisichella took provisional pole with a 1:27.925, which was whisked off him by Lewis Hamilton's 1:27.190 and this time Alonso was quicker on his first run and took P1 with a 1:27.050. However their efforts were put in place by Raikkonen's superb 1:26.072 and he looked like he'd claimed pole by a mile for Ferrari.

Felipe Massa saw the time go up on screen and chose not to give his team-mate a celebratory cheer - instead he kept on staring glumly at the monitor. It was a tell-tale image.

Meanwhile the BMWs were reinforcing Dr Mario Theissen's views that they were a top three team with Heidfeld taking P2 and Kubica P5.

On Fisi's second run he was badly held up by a Toyota and if consistency is going to be the watchword of FIA stewards then we'll find one of them in P10 tomorrow as a result. Fisi had no chance of improving his time, though Lewis Hamilton did and he grabbed back P2 and then immediately lost it to Alonso.

Despite being a long way ahead of the field Raikkonen went out for a second lap but didn't improve his time, however Nick Heidfeld snatched P3 in the last few seconds.

It was a fascinating end to a session that had clear winners and losers. McLaren's Ron Dennis was all smiles. His gamble on putting Lewis Hamilton in the second car had clearly started well. Pedro de la Rosa would not have been able to match Hamilton's performance and the young Brit made only one small mistake in the middle sector of his final lap that was the difference between P3 and P4.

BMW will be pleased to have taken 3rd and 5th, Toyota will be mightily relieved to have got their cars into 8th and 9th, and home boy Mark Webber can make a real fight of it from P7.

However Ferrari will be confident that they have the pace to score the opening win of the 2007 season.

The ultimate test will come when the reliability is put to the test in the race on Sunday. On a track where the attrition rate is high the Super Aguri team could well be looking at their first ever points finish, Lewis Hamilton at a possible first podium and Kimi Raikkonen at his first win since Japan 2005.

Report: FH

Times

01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:26.072

02 F. Alonso McLaren 1:26.493

03 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:26.556

04 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:26.755

05 R. Kubica BMW 1:27.347

06 G. Fisichella Renault 1:27.634

07 M. Webber Red Bull 1:27.934

08 J. Trulli Toyota 1:28.404

09 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:28.692

10 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:28.871

11 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:26.909

12 N. Rosberg Williams 1:26.914

13 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:26.964

14 J. Button Honda 1:27.264

15 A. Wurz Williams 1:27.393

16 F. Massa Ferrari 1:26.712

17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:27.596

18 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.305

19 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:28.579

20 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:29.267

21 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:29.339

22 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:31.932

Ferrari lead the way in Melbourne

Ferrari team mates Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in Friday’s second practice for the Australian Grand Prix. However, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld all close behind, the Italian team look unlikely to have things all their own way this weekend.

Following the morning’s damp opening session, there were a few anxious moments over the lunch break when the skies over Albert Park went grey. However, practice resumed on a dry track with BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and Williams’ Nico Rosberg taking over their regular mounts from their respective test team mates Sebastian Vettel and Kazuki Nakajima. This time Massa set the pace initially with 1m 28.582s, lowering that to 1m 28.111s as the McLarens chased after him. Once again Hamilton was highly impressive, looking smooth and calm as he shadowed Fernando Alonso’s times only a couple of tenths down. The Spaniard had just set the fastest lap of 1m 28.040s (compared to Hamilton’s 1m 28.251s) when Rubens Barrichello’s Honda snapped away from him in the last corner before tapping the outside wall. After a 15-minute red flag period - in which Heikki Kovalainen’s stricken Renault was also collected from Turn 4, whence it had ground to a halt at the same time - things resumed with Massa banging in a 1m 27.868s lap to go fastest from Heidfeld’s 1m 27.970s for BMW. Massa subsequently lowered his time to 1m 27.353s, which remained the fastest overall. Hamilton followed him with 1m 27.829s which stood him second fastest until Kimi Raikkonen got going to ease ahead of the McLaren with 1m 27.750s, just as Fisichella moved to fourth on 1m 27.941s, just ahead of Heidfeld. Gripping stuff! Unfortunately for Renault, Fisichella’s car then also stopped, also in Turn 4. It’s an unusual day when neither Renault is around at the finish. In both cases the team blamed fuel pressure problems, the causes of which are being investigated. Right at the end, Alex Wurz jumped his Williams up to sixth with 1m 27.981s, leaving Alonso seventh on his 1m 28.040s ahead of Rosberg, who also improved at the end for 1m 28.055s. Robert Kubica was ninth for BMW on 1m 28.281s, with David Coulthard rounding out the top 10 for Red Bull with 1m 28.495s. In the second half, Honda’s ‘B team’ beat their ‘A team’, Anthony Davidson beating Super Aguri team mate Takuma Sato after lapping his SA07 in 1m 28.727s compared to the Japanese driver’s 1m 29.009s. That put both ahead of Jenson Button, an unhappy 14th on 1m 29.066s, and Barrichello 15th on 1m 29.542s. To make matters worse for the Japanese manufacturer, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli separated the Super Aguris in 12th place, after a lap in 1m 28.921s. Toyota’s second car was 16th courtesy of Ralf Schumacher’s 1m 29.574s best, ahead of Mark Webber in the second Red Bull on 1m 29.801s. Kovalainen’s 1m 30.097s lap left him 18th in the line-up, ahead of the Toro Rossos and Spykers. Scott Speed was the quickest of this quartet on 1m 30.383s, with Adrian Sutil continuing - albeit only just - to show Spyker team mate Christijan Albers the way round. The German lapped in 1m 31.108s, the Dutchman 1m 31.175s. At the back, Tonio Liuzzi was stranded on 1m 31.693s after his Toro Rosso went off in Turn 14. He made it back to the pits, but did not go out again. When you look at Jenson Button’s 2006 pole time of 1m 25.229s it’s clear how much the Bridgestone control tyres have slowed things down thus far in 2007.