AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
FREE PRACTICE
The first day of the 2008 Formula One season in Melbourne
was not plain sailing for the AT&T Williams team as various
technical problems interrupted the process of optimising the
FW30 for the Albert Park circuit. With virtually no running
in the first practice session and a technical problem in the
afternoon session affecting Nico’s car, the team will
be working hard in tomorrow’s morning practice to finesse
the FW30 for the all-important afternoon qualifying.
Nico Rosberg: The team had a pretty difficult
start to the season today. I had no running in the first session
and in the second session I ran with a differential that was
not working. This meant that it was unbelievably difficult
out there. As a consequence, it was hard to learn anything
useful while keeping the car on track. Nevertheless, we learnt
a few bits and pieces, but we need to make up for today with
some real progress tomorrow. All that said, I think we have
a good base and we haven’t seen the best of it yet.
Kazuki Nakajima: It was a shame to lose
some time to learn the track in the morning session due to
the technical problem we suffered as although I have some
experience of the circuit, it is quite limited. But this afternoon
we managed to finish the whole programme and while you always
want more time on the track, I am now much more familiar with
the Albert Park layout. The next job is to check the data
tonight to see where I can improve.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: We had
a reliability problem with the gearboxes on both cars in the
morning session that meant no useful running. We solved that
problem for the second session, but had another problem with
the differential on Nico’s car that he carried throughout
the session. We knew what the problem was and it will be fixed
for tomorrow, but unfortunately we could not afford the time
during the session to correct it. Although we’ve lost
track time, we will be looking hard at the setup tonight to
improve for tomorrow.
AIR TEMP 31-34 0C 35-370C
TRACK TEMP 34-390C 46-480C
WEATHER Clear and windy Clear and windy
SESSION 1
TOP 3
K RAIKKN 1:26.461
L HAMILTON 1:26.948
F MASSA 1:26.958
SESSION 2
TOP 3
L HAMILTON 1:26.559
M WEBBER 1:27.473
F MASSA 1:27.640
CHASSIS & ENGINE 1st SESSION 2nd SESSION
N ROSBERG FW30-03 / H257 - 1:28.352 (8th) 31 LAPS
K NAKAJIMA FW30-04 / H256 1:35.053 (21ST) 3 LAPS 1:29.077
(16th) 33 LAPS
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