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Formula 1
Australian GP
2014 Australian Grand Prix Friday - Practice
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Vettel's radio isn't working well, leading to the slightly surreal sound of his engineer 'Rocky' repeating instructions while the champion keeps saying "please repeat, no radio".
The radio starts working again further round the lap.
The radio starts working again further round the lap.
Bottas, breaking the lull in laptime improvement, goes fastest of anyone in the middle sector.
Vettel out, Rosberg in. The latter had a very under-the-radar run.
Crash
Massa joins the club of drivers who braked too late for Turn 1 and skipped over the grass.
Raikkonen's not going to improve further on this run as he brings his Ferrari into the pits.
Replays show smoke coming into the cockpit from behind the steering wheel just before Maldonado went off.
Raikkonen brings his best down to a 1m32.977s, but he remains ninth.
Maldonado waves from the cockpit as he trundles into the pitlane, beckoning marshals and his Lotus team to come to help him.
Raikkonen goes green in sector two but there are no obvious, big improves with eight and a half minutes remaining.
Crash
Maldonado's Lotus slows right down and then skates into the Turn 13 gravel. He makes it back out and continues a cruise back to the pits.
Button pits. Could that be job done for the morning? Just over 10 minutes on the clock so you'd assume so.
Lots more cars out now (too many to list quickly). Twelve of the top 13, we'll say that. Only Vettel in the pits of those drivers.
Raikkonen runs wide at Turn 1, but keeps it on the astroturf rather than taking to the grass as his team-mate did earlier.
It is just an installation lap for Maldonado, who pits.
This out-lap (at least) for Maldonado means Lotus team-mate Grosjean is the only man to remain garage-bound for the whole session with 12 minutes to go.
And Button "still can't find my laptime on the steering wheel".
The team does it's not quite sure what's going on with his display, so reads him some laptimes and reminds him to cool the brakes.
The team does it's not quite sure what's going on with his display, so reads him some laptimes and reminds him to cool the brakes.
There's Maldonado! The Lotus emerges.
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Sutil felt a bit swamped by the last set of radio instructions from Sauber, which sounded pretty incomprehensible to AUTOSPORT, it must be said:
"Next time, please say it a little slower as that is a lot of instructions all in one go."
"It's OK Adrian, that was abnormal. Next time it will be less."
"Next time, please say it a little slower as that is a lot of instructions all in one go."
"It's OK Adrian, that was abnormal. Next time it will be less."
A few more cars out now. Button, Ricciardo, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Perez, Kvyat and Sutil.
Button falls just short of his own personal best on that run. He's now backed off again.
Bottas, incidentally, had hauled his Williams to fourth in the times before pitting. That's third and fourth for the Martini squad, good effort. They really could shake things up this weekend.
Or stir them. Either way.
Or stir them. Either way.
Well, it's a personal best in sector one this time around from Button...
Is Button winding himself up for a proper effort? That wasn't spectacular (1.9s off the pace), so this could either be a longer run or just a slow burner from Jenson.
More braking frowns for Toro Rosso, as Kvyat reports some strange behaviour at Turn 3.
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Maldonado's being strapped into the Lotus. Is he about to emerge?
As he does so, out comes Rosberg.
And, pleased with his work in impressing STRAW, Bottas pits. Eighteen laps in FP1 for the Finn.
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While his team-mate was struggling a bit with direction, Bottas looks more comfortable according to EDD STRAW.
"He seems able to take a big bite of the kerb on entry to 11/12 without any ill-effects," our man notes. "The Williams still looking very user friendly."
"He seems able to take a big bite of the kerb on entry to 11/12 without any ill-effects," our man notes. "The Williams still looking very user friendly."
Williams asks Bottas to cool the brakes on his in-lap as rear temperatures are high.
Sutil's made it 15 drivers with a time to their name. He's slowest of that group though, 6.182s off the pace.
Vettel's up to eighth now and still improving. His last effort was a 1m32.974s, 1.1s slower than Alonso.
Button is back out in the McLaren. Can he wrest back top spot from Alonso with 22 minutes remaining?
Leading the lap count so far is Vergne, whose Toro Rosso has racked up 20 laps. The good news continues for Renault - Ricciardo is next up on 18.
Bottas is also on 18 laps as the leading Mercedes representative while Alonso has 14 laps in the Ferrari.
Bottas is also on 18 laps as the leading Mercedes representative while Alonso has 14 laps in the Ferrari.
Lotus is buckling Maldonado into the car like a team about to do some running.
Vettel gets on the board with a 1m34.593s. That's 13th fastest.
Breaking news
Just under half an hour to go, headlines so far:
* Alonso fastest, ahead of Button, Massa and Ricciardo.
* Lotus yet to come out of garage.
* An oil pressure sensor shuts down Hamilton's Mercedes on its first run.
* Perez has a spin, several cars harmlessly visit the grass.
* Alonso fastest, ahead of Button, Massa and Ricciardo.
* Lotus yet to come out of garage.
* An oil pressure sensor shuts down Hamilton's Mercedes on its first run.
* Perez has a spin, several cars harmlessly visit the grass.
Bottas makes it 15 laps for FP1 as Sutil emerges. Only 14 times on the board, one an unrepresentative Max Chilton effort.
Alonso's also still running, and is just 0.154s shy of his own best time on that last lap - which included a purple final sector.
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"If the engine is clean, five timed laps please Sebastian," asks the world champion's team.
By: Matt Beer, Ben Anderson, Scott Mitchell, Edd Straw, Sam Tremayne
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