McLaren sets the pace

As expected, the McLaren team set the pace in the opening practice session of the 1999 season. David Coulthard ended up heading a McLaren one-two by the finish of Friday's two free practice sessions in Melbourne, Mika Hakkinen dropping back to close second spot after he crashed coming out of the final time during a lap which would have been well ahead of his rivals had he completed it. The World Champion escaped unhurt, but his car suffered severe suspension damage to the right side and damage to the rear wing and bodywork. "The track was dirty for the first session as usual. We have to keep our heads down and concentrate on keeping cool," said Hakkinen. Coulthard complained of understeer from the new 4-groove tyres, the Scot taking a trip across the grass on one occasion.

Barrichello surprise third for Stewart

The Stewart team continued to show well throughout the day's free practice. In the morning session, they were sixth and seventh fastest with Rubens Barrichello and Johnny Herbert, their cars running trouble free as both drivers worked on the set-up. Barrichello then took a surprise third fastest, despite a shock absorber problem at the end. "We are already half a second faster than our qualifying time last year. It shows the potential of the car," said a delighted Barrichello.

Frentzen fourth for Jordan

Despite a couple of trips across the grass caused by too much front wing in a bid to eliminate an understeer problem, Jordan's Heinz Harald Frentzen took the fourth fastest time of the day just behind Barrichello. In the morning sessions he set the third fastest time, but complained about moving around more in his seat then he would have liked. Damon Hill was sixth quickest, 4-tenth's of a second off Frentzen's pace, but happy with the progress he was making with his car's handling. In the morning he had problems with a power steering sensor at the start of the session, but that was fixed. Later, he spun on his final quick lap.

Schumacher misses lost laps

Michael Schumacher ended up a disappointed seventh fastest for the day, but put his lowly placing down to the fact that he had lost so many laps set-up time this morning because of his gearbox trouble. AT the end of the morning session, the German was at the bottom of the time sheets, after completing just three slow laps before gearbox selection problems kept his car in the garage for the rest of the morning.

In the afternoon, he lost more time with a broken seal on the car. "We have a lot of work to do tonight, but I am not unduly preoccupied, I am optimistic that we can improve tomorrow," he said. Eddie Irvine was back in 14th place working on different set-ups throughout the session and a heavy fuel load. "I will have to wait until tomorrow to get a more accurate picture," said Eddie, " but I am not worried - today we were taking it easy and not taking any risks as we do not have enough spares here to start risking the car for nothing."

Trulli eighth for Prost

Jarno Trulli confirmed his good pre-season testing times with the fifth fastest time for Prost this morning, later slipping back to eighth place after he chaned the set-up of his car for the worse. He put it back to the morning set-up just before the end of the day and found it much better. Olivier Panis was back in 15th spot, after being 21st in the morning, struggling to find the right set-up after losing time this morning.

Zanardi pips Schumacher in top 10 spot

Alex Zanardi learned the Melbourne circuit quickly today to end up ninth fastest, a few thousandth's of a second ahead of his team mate Ralf Schumacher, even though the Italian stopped early with an engine fire and water pressure problems. "I made little changes throughout the day, but they were all in the right direction," said an optimistic Zanardi. Schumacher managed to eliminate an understeer problem and worked on race set-up.

Benetton mid-field

Alexander Wurz and Giancarlo Fisichella were back in 11th and 12th places by the end of the session, Wurz losing time with a punctured tyre while Fisichella was troubled by a throttle hydraulic problem. He had a much better sessions in the morning, setting the fourth fastest time. However, Wurz had engine mapping problems, an oil radiator leak and a straight on at one corner.

In brief...

It was a troubled afternoon for Sauber. Jean Alesi spun and clipped a wall after a possible suspension failure, his team-mate Diniz stopping early when a warning light came on. Jacques Villeneuve was encouraged by his 16th place in his first race for BAR. His team-mate Zonta was back in last spot after stopping on his first lap with a drive train problem.

And other news from Friday:

Talk, Talk

The first race of the season is always the focus of huge media attention and Scuderia Ferrari-Marlboro started with a press conference organised by team partner Shell. The team is hugely popular in Australia, thanks partly to the huge Italian population. Michael Schumacher was in confident mood and described the fact he had never won in Australia as a "meaningless statistic." On the subject of statistics, the last time a Ferrari won the opening race of the year was in 1989, thanks to Nigel Mansell's victory in Brazil. Eddie Irvine defended Formula 1's right to operate as a team sport, saying that if he had not moved over to let Schumacher pass on several occasions in 1998, then the sport itself would have been robbed of a great finale in Japan.

Schumacher hits the target

Aside from racing, Michael Schumacher's other passion is soccer and on Wednesday night in Melbourne, he took part in a friendly game. He made a big impression, scoring three goals.

Protest problems

This race takes place in a Melbourne park and ever since the first event four years ago, an environmental protest group has tried to disrupt the event. This year they managed to block the main entrance on Wednesday and two of their number also chained themselves to a fence outside the Scuderia Ferrari-Marlboro garage. One of them was cut free by police, while the other had to be released by mechanics.

Driver weights

As always at the start of the season, all drivers are weighed, with overalls, gloves and helmet, in order to calculate the weight of the car during qualifying and the race. This year, the heaviest driver is Benetton's Alexander Wurz (82.5 kg) while the lightest is Minardi's Luca Badoer (58.5 kg.)

USA comes to Australia

A large delegation from the Indianapolis Speedway is in Melbourne this week to see how a grand prix is organised and run. This is part of the learning process before the most famous race track in America hosts its first Formula 1 race in 2000.

More pictures from the Australian Grand Prix Friday session can be found on http://ontheedge.simplenet.com