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Source is the Sydney Morning Herald Online/Fairfax Digital ( http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking...ractice-session/2005/03/04/1109700671780.html )
Fingers crossed for Ferrari and Schumacher.
This is going to be an extremely close call!McLaren has thrown down the gauntlet to Ferrari ahead of Sunday's Australian Formula One Grand Prix, dominating the timesheets in Friday's practice sessions.
McLaren-Mercedes set three of the fastest times for the day, with third driver Pedro De La Rosa topping the timesheets with a 1.25.376 - less than a second off last year's pole position time.
While De La Rosa was running a different program as he will not be involved in qualifying or the race, McLaren could take great confidence from Kimi Raikkonen running second and Juan-Pablo Montoya fifth in Friday's second session.
"It's been an encouraging start to the weekend," McLaren team principal Ron Dennis said.
"The entire team has worked hard to prepare for the first race in 2005 and today was no exception."
Splitting the three McLarens was Williams-BMW's Nick Heidfeld, who was 1.4 seconds quicker than Mark Webber, although the Australian was not panicked, insisting the true test will only come on Sunday.
In the second session we had a small problem with the fuel system of the car and we lost some time there but the mechanics got it fixed pretty quickly," Webber said.
"We spent our time mainly testing tyres and also saving the engine for the race and the next weekend."
The other man splitting the McLarens was a certain Michael Schumacher.
The seven-time world champion had warned before this race that Ferrari will be behind the eight-ball because it was using a modified version of last year's car.
While Friday's sessions were only practice, Ferrari had made a habit in past years of dominating them at this season's opener, which they did not manage on Friday.
Ferrari was pacing itself for a 19-race season, in which engines have to last for two races.
"It looks as though our pre-season idea of who would be our main opposition was pretty accurate, although I was surprised at the pace of the Red Bull and Sauber cars," Schumacher said.
Sauber's Felipe Massa finished sixth quickest in the second session, while Red Bull - making their F1 debut - had its moment of glory when third driver Vitantonio Luzzi set the top time in the morning session, with his time ultimately being the fourth-fastest of the day.
Renault had been flagged as the most realistic threat to Ferrari this season, and spent today concentrating purely on testing tyre and engine settings.
Jordan were predictably the strugglers of the day, with none of their three drivers able to get much more than within three seconds of the best times, but at least they turned a wheel unlike Minardi.
The Australian-owned Minardi team was refused permission by stewards to race, having failed in a bid to get unanimous support from rival teams to run the 2004 car, which does not meet new regulations.
Fingers crossed for Ferrari and Schumacher.
