Schumacher fastest in opening practice
Australian GP - 1st Free Practice
Six-times world drivers' champion Michael Schumacher was fastest in opening practice Friday for the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday.
Schumacher led a Ferrari sweep of the top two fastest times in the first one-hour session around the 5.303 kilometre (3.295 mile) Albert Park street circuit. The 35-year-old German ace had a fastest lap of one minute 25.127 seconds - 0.234sec ahead of Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello (1:25.361).
Renault driver Jarno Trulli was next quickest in 1:27.025, some 1.898sec behind Schumacher. Last year's race winner David Coulthard in a McLaren was fourth best in 1:27.264 ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso (1:27.359) and Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya (1:27.462).
The teams have another one-hour practice session later Friday.
Schumacher fastest as Ferrari outshine rivals - Australian GP - 2nd Free Practice
Six-times world drivers' champion Michael Schumacher blew away his rivals in Friday's opening practice for the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday.
Schumacher led a Ferrari sweep of the top two fastest times after two one-hour sessions around the 5.303 kilometre (3.295 mile) Albert Park street circuit in fine conditions. The 35-year-old German ace dominated the day with his own lap record of one minute 24.718 seconds -- 0.108sec ahead of Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello (1:24.826) of Brazil.
Schumacher had a few anxious moments along the way with his Ferrari car spearing wide out of Turn 16 into the home straight and ploughing across a grass verge before cruising back into the pits. There was some debris off the car with some grass trapped in the bodywork and the left-hand bargeboard was missing.
Ferrari clearly won the opening exchanges ahead of Sunday's race and were just over a second quicker than their nearest rivals, the Renault of Italian Jarno Trulli. Trulli clocked the third-best time of 1:25.757, but it was 1.039sec slower than Schumacher's best.
Briton Jenson Button, in a BAR-Honda, registered an encouraging fourth-best lap time of 1:25.786. Spaniard Fernando Alonso, claimed by some to be a future replacement in the champion Ferrari team for 35-year-old Schumacher, recorded the fifth- best time of 1:25.853.
The Williams-BMW pair of Ralf Schumacher (1:25.882) and Juan Pablo Montoya (1:26.206) were sixth and seventh respectively, but the McLarens were not prominent in the two practice sessions. Last year's race winner David Coulthard was McLaren's best performer with 1:26.215, but that was almost 1.5sec down on Schumacher's time. Coulthard's teammate, Finland's Kimi Raikkonen, just two points behind Schumacher in last year's F1 championship, struggled with the 10th best time in practice of 1:26.579.
Australia's lone hope of success in its home GP, Jaguar's Mark Webber, clocked the ninth best lap time in practice of 1:26.312.
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Michael draws first blood
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