Problems slow Toyotas

Brazilian Cristiano da Matta finished 14th and 16th in the two sessions, suffered a couple of spins and failed to finish the second run thanks to a puncture in his rear-left tyre. He said: "In the first hour, the track didn't have much grip and we decided not to run much. In the second session, I experienced some brake problems. Not the best start to the weekend."

Meanwhile, fellow race driver Olivier Panis struggled with the set-up of his car and was held up by traffic during his quick laps on new tyres, ending up 16th and 18th. "I had a difficult first day in Australia," he said. "We were unable to complete many laps and I am not yet happy with the set-up."

Third driver Ricardo Zonta did manage to complete a back-to-back tyre test for the team, giving them a clear idea of which rubber to choose for tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's race, but even Zonta's runs were not without their problems.

Toyota technical director Mike Gascoyne said: "Ricardo had a small electrical problem, which limited his running. Both race drivers had some little problems. Overall, the session panned out pretty much as expected and we got some good data."