Raikkonen tops practice 1 - Australia
World champion Kimi Raikkonen began his title defence in fine style by topping the first practice session of the new season in Melbourne

The Ferrari driver deposed McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the closing moments of the session, and then extended his margin to 0.487 seconds by producing an even faster time on his second flying lap of the run.
BMW's Nick Heidfeld took the honour of leading the field out on track for the first installation laps of the 2008 world championship, but it was Champ Car convert Sebastien Bourdais for Scuderia Toro Rosso who set the first timed lap of the season after 15 minutes.
Raikkonen was the first of the potential title contenders to complete a flying lap, and the reigning champion held the top spot for a quarter of an hour before Hamilton produced a 1:27.085 and moved ahead.
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) looked set to beat Hamilton's time on his last run until encountering traffic in the final sector. But Raikkonen had no such problems when he returned to the track, and was able to retake the top position in the final minute of the session.
Hamilton's new McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen briefly edged Massa down to fourth before the Brazilian reclaimed third with his last lap.
Home favourite Mark Webber moved up to fifth place for Red Bull in the closing moments, albeit 1.8 seconds slower than the leaders.
Until Webber's late lap Fernando Alonso (Renault) had been the closest challenger to the top two teams. The former world champion was also nearly two seconds behind Raikkonen's time and had two excursions through gravel traps, while his teammate Nelson Piquet caused a brief red flag after spinning and stalling at Turn 13.
The Brazilian rookie was one of several drivers in trouble during the session. Red Bull's David Coulthard had to stop with low oil pressure, Heidfeld was forced to park his BMW at the trackside just after the one-hour mark, and Nico Rosberg spent most of the morning in the Williams garage due to a gearbox issue and did not complete a flying lap.
Robert Kubica took seventh for BMW, with Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli showing promising form for Toyota in eighth and 10th places, split by Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso.
Jenson Button finished just outside the top ten for Honda, ahead of Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella and Coulthard.
Still extremely short of spare parts, the recently-reprieved Super Aguri team only came out for a handful of laps in the closing minutes and ended the morning nearly five seconds off the pace.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:26.461 25 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:26.948 + 0.487 21 3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:26.958 + 0.497 25 4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.114 + 0.653 19 5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:28.263 + 1.802 18 6. Alonso Renault (B) 1:28.360 + 1.899 22 7. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.579 + 2.118 12 8. Glock Toyota (B) 1:28.913 + 2.452 16 9. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:28.957 + 2.496 22 10. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:29.014 + 2.553 23 11. Button Honda (B) 1:29.124 + 2.663 25 12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:29.230 + 2.769 24 13. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:29.301 + 2.840 5 14. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:29.363 + 2.902 32 15. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:29.533 + 3.072 17 16. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:29.561 + 3.100 7 17. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:30.155 + 3.694 13 18. Piquet Renault (B) 1:30.357 + 3.896 21 19. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:31.048 + 4.587 7 20. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:31.771 + 5.310 7 21. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:35.053 + 8.592 3 22. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) No time 3 All timing unofficial
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.