While the more dramatic would say it was the start of a new era in F1 in Practice One in Australia, it was the same old story as Red Bull set the pace.
The session got underway with Karun Chandhok, Team Lotus test driver, the first out. But less than a minute later, the session was briefly red flagged as Chandhok's car suffered a problem at the back end, pitching the Indian driver into the wall nose first. "I don't know what happened," he said. "I just lost it."
After the early excitement, the drivers got down to business with system checks, Pirelli tyre testing, familiarising themselves with the Albert Park circuit and, of course, getting a feel for their new cars, the KERS and the moveable rear wings.
Pastor Maldonado, the new Williams' man, set the first lap time of the season, a 1:39.381. With more drivers setting times, Felipe Massa went quickest before visiting the gravel. The Brazilian continued lapping, lowering the benchmark to a 1:29.572 while Lewis Hamilton, using McLaren's new exhaust, which is very similar to that of Red Bull and Ferrari's exhaust system, took second place.
Mark Webber overhauled Massa with a 1:29.552. Hamilton took half a second off the Aussie driver's time before Webber again hit the front with a 1:28.217 after setting three purple sector times at the end of a seven-lap run. Jenson Button joined the fight at the front, taking second place before losing out to reigning World Champ Sebastian Vettel. The German continued lapping, taking the P1 slot with a 1:27.869.
With 20 minutes left on the clock, it was a Red Bull 1-2, followed by Button, Hamilton, Rubens Barrichello, Massa, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Sergio Perez and Sebastien Buemi completed the top ten.
Fernando Alonso entered the fight at the front, taking sixth place before moving up to second, 0.219s behind Vettel. Rosberg climbed to third place while Kamui Kobayashi entered the top ten in eighth place. However, the Japanese driver then suffered a rather unusual problem as the one side of his engine cover literally flew off the car.
The session ended with Webber quickest with a 1:26.831 while Vettel was 0.327s down. Alonso was third ahead of Rosberg, Barrichello, Button, Hamilton and Schumacher.
As for Hispania Racing, the only team not to have put in a lap in pre-season testing in their 2011 car, well, they didn't put in a lap in Practice One either.
Times
01. Mark Webber Red Bull 01:26.831 20 laps
02. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 01:27.158 19 laps
03. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:27.749 20 laps
04. Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 01:28.152 16 laps
05. Rubens Barrichello Williams 01:28.430 24 laps
06. Jenson Button McLaren 01:28.440 29 laps
07. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 01:28.483 26 laps
08. Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 01:28.690 14 laps
09. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 01:28.725 13 laps
10. Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:28.765 15 laps
11. Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:28.842 20 laps
12. Nick Heidfeld Renault 01:28.928 14 laps
13. Adrian Sutil Force India 01:29.314 19 laps
14. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:29.328 21 laps
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams 01:29.403 24 laps
16. Daniel Ricciardo Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:29.468 23 laps
17. Sergio Perez Sauber 01:29.643 18 laps
18. Nico Hulkenberg Force India 01:31.002 20 laps
19. Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus 01:32.428 13 laps
20. Jerome d' Ambrosio Virgin Racing 01:35.282 17 laps
21. Timo Glock Virgin Racing 01:35.289 15 laps
22. Karun Chandhok Team Lotus no time 1 laps
23. Narain Karthikeyan Hispania no time
24. Vitantonio Liuzzi Hispania no time
