Australian Grand Prix, FP1 Session

Heavy rain affected the first 90-minute practice session for the Australian Grand Prix and World champion Fernando Alonso got his title defence off to a perfect start.

As the track dried out there was a scramble by a number of drivers in the last five-minutes and the McLaren star came out top, his rookie team-mate Lewis Hamilton switched to dry tyres in the final moments of the session.

Fernando was always near the top of the times, the drying track turned the session into a lottery and whether he has the pace to challenge Ferrari on Sunday remains to be seen.

After topping the winter test sessions, Felipe Massa was among the gaggle of late runners who changed to a dry set up, but ended the session 1.5s slower than the leading McLaren.
But both Felipe and teammate Kimi Raikkonen looked threatening when the track was still wet, halfway through the session.
Kimi never even bothered to try slicks, such was his belief that he would find his touch in the afternoon.

With the spotlight on him, Lewis Hamilton, F1's first black driver, took his public bow.
With the track treacherously wet for the first hour of the session, the pressure was clearly on the 22-year-old Englishman, but he didn't even drop a wheel on the grass.
Lewis took just two laps to match the pace of his senior teammate in the wet, going quietly about his business to end the session fourth fastest.

Test driver Sebastien Vettel, who sat in for Robert Kubica, was third for BMW.
Sebastien, along with Jarno Trulli and Adrian Sutil, was one of a few drivers who ventured out early on in the session and was never far from the front on track.

Team-mate Nick Heidfeld also set the pace as the track was drying out, proving BMW's winter potential, but could only set 17th fastest due to his lack of a dry run.

Jenson Button’s Honda claimed fifth and revelled in the wet conditions. Grabbing a chance of a dry run late on, he kept himself in the mix.

Williams’s tester Kazuki Nakajima was sixth fastest, standing in for Nico Rosberg, ahead of David Coulthard's Red Bull and Heikki Kovalainen's Renault – who ran off the track twice mid-session.

Mark Webber was the first to venture out on dry tyres, going five seconds quicker than Nick Heidfeld's previous mark but was quickly outpaced by the pack having home glory stolen from him in the last three minutes.

Rubens Barrichello rounded out the top ten ahead of Takuma Sato's impressive Super Aguri/Honda and Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault.

Alexander Wurz was 13th for Williams, the last of the dry runners proper.

Adrian Sutil worked hard for 14th in the Spyker. The German debutant clocked up 26 laps as he learned the Albert Park track, and outpacing his senior teammate Christijan Albers by more than a second rewarded him.

Toro Rosso’s Vitantonio Liuzzi's STR, split the two Dutch cars.
Anthony Davidson ended up 18th just behind the BMW, but the Englishman was as high as third when the track on the wet track and didn’t bother to go out on dry tires.

Kimi Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Scott Speed and Jarno Trulli (lucky not to clout the wall in a huge spin at Turn 11) completed the runners.

Australian Grand Prix, Free practice session 1 results
1	ALONSO	Mclaren	1m29.214s
2	MASSA	Ferrari	1m30.707s
3	VETTEL	BMW	1m30.857s
4	HAMILTON	McLaren	1m30.878s
5	BUTTON	Honda	1m31.162s
6	NAKAJIMA	Williams	1m31.401s
7	COULTHARD	Red Bull	1m31.528s
8	KOVALAINEN	Renault	1m31.571s
9	WEBBER	Red Bull	1m31.661s
10	BARRICHELLO	Honda	1m31.737s
11	SATO	Super Aguri	1m31.782s
12	FISICHELLA	Renault	1m32.011s
13	WURZ	Williams	1m32.194s
14	SUTIL	Spyker	1m34.043s
15	LIUZZI	Toro Rosso	1m34.627s
16	ALBERS	Spyker	1m35.055s
17	HEIDFELD	BMW	1m37.249s
18	DAVIDSON	Super Aguri	1m39.221s
19	RAIKKONEN	Ferrari	1m39.242s
20	R SCHUMACHER	Toyota	1m39.550s
21	SPEED	Toro Rosso	1m41.763s
22	TRULLI	Toyota	1m44.130s