Formula One news

BMW fastest in free practice on Saturday

Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld completed the fastest laps on Saturday morning at Albert Park. The BMW drivers completed their fastest laps in the final minute of the one-hour free practice session. The duo was followed by former F1 champion Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton focussed on race set-up

The third free practice session got underway at 11.00am local Melbourne time with temperatures around 23 degrees Celsius, which is at least ten degrees less than it was on Friday. For the drivers the lower temperatures would make life a bit easier in the cockpit.

The one hour free practice session offers the drivers a final opportunity to prepare the car for this afternoon's qualifying session and Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. Twenty minutes into the session saw Felipe Massa on top of the time sheets, but not much later Fernando Alonso improved the day's fastest lap.

Fisichella did well

With ten minutes to go Giancarlo Fisichella surprised a few as the Italian completed the fastest time in sector two. His lap time, 1.26.682 was in the end good enough for a ninth position in today's free practice session. With his fastest time he was almost a second ahead of Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil.

At Ferrari and McLaren the drivers were fully focussed on the car's race set-up. The drivers were only seen on the harder Bridgestone compound, the tyre that should last longer during the race. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen ended 12th and 20th while Ferrari drivers Massa and Raikkonen ended 11th and 14th.

Qualifying will get underway at 14.00 this afternoon, which is at 03.00am GMT.

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