Trulli Quickest in Friday Morning Testing

Jarno Trulli finished up quickest to top the times at the end of the 2003 season's opening morning test session here in Melbourne on Friday, the Italian delivering a best lap of one minute and 28.125 seconds in his Renault round the Albert Park circuit.

On a warm morning with temperatures rising under blue skies in Victoria, Australian Mark Webber was the first man out onto the circuit to delight the spectators littered around the park and he ended up second quickest behind Trulli.

The session, which began at half past eight in the morning, was the first of the new year and the first of a new-look Grand Prix structure for the Formula One world championship, following FIA president Max Mosley's decision to introduce a raft of radical rule changes during the off-season.

Webber, in his Jaguar, was second quickest in a time of one minute and 28.213, a lap that was good enough for him to outpace another Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in his Jordan-Ford during a session that at least produced the sounds and noises of Formula One if little great spectacle during 120 minutes of track action.

There were four teams involved in the session, all permitted to test in the manner of a private test, and this allowed them to use test and reserve drivers though only Renault, by employing Scot Allan McNish, took up this opportunity.

More importantly, the session gave the new boys to the F1 circus a chance to learn the track ahead of the weekend's more serious action and this was invaluable to Briton Justin Wilson in his Minardi, Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia in his Jaguar and Briton Ralph Firman in his Jordan-Ford.

All did creditably, but the only man to swerve off the circuit and then rejoin the asphalt streak was Firman, 27, who boasts dual nationality and has been entered by Jordan, on the entry sheets, as an Irishman. His father is English, however, and he was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England, a fact that means he is also British.

Fernando Alonso, of Spain, was also making a 'debut' albeit as a racing driver for the Renault team, after spending a year with them as a test driver following an earlier spell with Minardi, and he did a tidy job gathering data for the remainder of the weekend's work.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Trulli Renault (M) 1:28.125 2. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:28.213 3. Fisichella Jordan-Ford (B) 1:28.225 4. Alonso Renault (M) 1:28.339 5. McNish Renault (M) 1:29.557 6. Firman Jordan-Ford (B) 1:30.325 7. Verstappen Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:30.458 8. Pizzonia Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:30.502 9. Wilson Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:31.187