Vettlu's first free practice
The current world champion, Sebastian Vettel, was the fastest with a time of 1: 27.211 in Friday’s first free practice before the Australian Grand Prix. He set the time on medium-hard tires, and was closest to him by Ferrari racer Felipe Massa, who was just 0.078 seconds behind. Third was Fernando Alonso in a second Ferrari. Temperatures were much higher than those in tests in Barcelona and Jerez, but it was almost half an hour before any of the racers took the plunge and set the time. The first was Jean-Eric Vergne, and the better racers drove their laps almost forty minutes after the start of training, as they had previously waited for the track to clear. We also saw some small excursions from the trail, but the most frightening was Paul di Resta, who drove n before the fifth turn.