2005 Australian GP WilliamsF1 Friday 1st Practice

The start of the 2005 Formula One season was kicked off by the opening Friday morning practice for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia. There have been concerns expressed in regard to the amount of laps drivers will do in order to limit the kilometres that they put on their engines. The Friday session would again see certain teams been allowed to run a third car. These teams were McLaren, Sauber, Toyota, Red Bull, Jordan and Minardi.

The third car gives the team the benefit of having one driver who does not have to be concerned by the life of his engine and can be used as a data collector for the other drivers in the respective team. On this occasion only McLaren with Pedro de la Rosa, Toyota with Ricardo Zonta, Red Bull with Vitantonio Liuzzi, and Jordan with Robert Doornbos would run the third car.

At the end of the session BMW WilliamsF1 drivers Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld would finish in seventh and eleventh positions respectively.

On a day with clear skies the green light would show the start of the session and the first driver out was Sauber's Jacques Villeneuve. Rookie Narian Karthikeyan would take his Jordan out onto the track becoming the first Indian driver to take part in a Grand Prix. Minardi would not be running in the session. Both Ferrari's would come out to complete their installation lap.

The first driver to set a time would be Red Bull's Vitantonio Liuzzi. He would set a first sector time of 31.7 secs. McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa would also come out. Liuzzi would complete his lap with a time of 1m:33.405. He would improve with a 1m:31.462. de la Rosa would set a time of 1m:32.779, improving with a 1m:30.953. Dutchman Robert Doornbos would set a time of 1m:39.652, way off the pace. Toyota's Ricardo Zonta posts his first lap with a time of 1m:33.256.

As expected the number of cars running is limited, after twenty minutes of the session run, just Liuzzi, de la Rosa, Zonta, and Doornbos have set a time. de la Rosa would set the fastest time with a 1m:29.336. de la Rosa would go faster with a 1m:29.209. Zonta would move into second with a 1m:30.257. Doornbos' best time was a 1m:33.156.

Jordan's Tiago Monteiro and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella would both come out onto the circuit, joined by Karthikeyan. Fisichella would quickly return to his garage. Both Montiero and Karthikeyan were setting times over ten seconds away from the rest of the field. It would appear that they are trying to conserve their cars while getting some track time. Liuzzi would move into first with a 1m:28.923. But de la Rosa would move ahead with a 1m:28.612.

With just about half the session run BMW WilliamsF1 driver Mark Webber comes out of the WilliamsF1 pit. de la Rosa lowers his time down to a  1m:28.290, while Mark would go fourth with a 1m:29.594. He would improve with a 1m:29.168. Ralf Schumacher, Sato, Trulli and Button were all now lapping the circuit. Ralf would set a time of 1m:29.491 to be fifth fastest. Trulli was sixth, Button eighth, and Sato ninth. Liuzzi would set the fastest time with a lap of 1m:25.967. Zonta would improve his with a 1m:28.478.

Button would move into fourth with a time of 1m:28.755, while Red Bull's David Coulthard was fifth with a 1m:28.943. David would improve with a 1m:27.573, to join his team-mate at the front. de la Rosa would beat David's time with a 1m:26.984. Both Ferrari drivers would come out of their garages, joined by
Villeneuve and Montoya. Mark would set a time of 1m:28.269 to be fourth. With five minutes remaining the top eight were Liuzzi, de la Rosa, Zonta, Coulthard, Webber, Button, Klien and Trulli. Barrichello sets a time of 1m:29.227, while Montoya would move into fourth with a time of 1m:27.425. Massa was in sixth with a 1m:27.971.

So with the end of the session it would be Red Bull's Liuzzi who would set the fastest time, in a session that would see several drivers not even bothering to set a time, including Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. The times set in this session failed to give any indication of the true form of each of the teams.