Practice 1 Report - Kimi leads the way

The Formula 1 season got underway in Melbourne with Kimi Raikkonen setting the fastest time of the Friday morning session. The World Champion set a time that was four-tenths of a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren. The gap was considerable, but it is unlikely that everyone had showed their hands. Third fastest was Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren with Felipe Massa fourth in the second Ferrari.

The best of the rest was local hero Mark Webber with a time that was more than 1.8secs slower than Raikkonen but just a tenth ahead of the Renault of Fernando Alonso. Robert Kubica's BMW was next ahead of Timo Glock's Toyota, Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso and the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

Jenson Button's Honda was 11th.

There were no serious times from the Williams team with Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg ending the session 21st and 22nd.

Things will be different in the afternoon.