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Practice 2: Rosberg on top again



Nico Rosberg completed a superb opening day of the 2009 season for Williams by setting the pace once again in second practice at Albert Park.

The young German moved to the top of the timing charts one-third of the way through the 90-minute session and remained there for the remainder of the afternoon.

His closest challenger was Rubens Barrichello, just 0.1s behind in the Brawn BGP 001, with Jarno Trulli a further 0.2s adrift in the Toyota.

The fact that the three fastest cars happened to be those fitted with the controversial diffusers against which rival outfits lodged protests on Thursday was lost on nobody in the paddock…

Red Bull’s Mark Webber was quickest of those running more conservative diffuser designs, the local favourite putting a difficult morning session behind him to finish just 0.3s off the pace.

Jenson Button, Jarno Trulli and Kazuki Nakajima backed up their team-mate’s performances with fifth, sixth and seventh places for Brawn, Toyota and Williams respectively.

The session began under sunny skies but the track temperature dropped markedly as the 90 minutes progressed and there were few major lap time improvements in the second half.

During the busy opening stages Rosberg, an impressive Adrian Sutil, Button, Trulli and Glock traded the fastest time before the Williams driver took control with a lap in 1m26.293s.

He shaved another couple of tenths off that mark over his next few laps, ultimately clocking a best of 1m26.053s, some 0.6s inside his session one benchmark.

As the track temperature fell and the grip seeped away with it, Rosberg’s supremacy wasn’t threatened until the final moments when Barrichello improved to 1m26.157s.

The Ferraris were curiously unable to match their solid first practice pace, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen languishing in 10th and 11th places respectively.

Raikkonen, in fact, was one of only two drivers (the other being Heikki Kovalainen) to lap more slowly in the second session than in the first.

Both he and Massa had several lurid moments, Massa providing one of the more spectacular sights as he wrestled a huge tank-slapper out of the fast turn 14.

Fernando Alonso spun harmlessly early in the session after taking too much kerb in turn four, but when Sebastian Vettel strayed his left-rear wheel onto the grass under braking for turn three, the Red Bull snapped around on him and stalled.

The German was sidelined from the final half-hour but nonetheless remained eighth on the timing charts ahead of Sutil – who again did a stellar job for Force India – Massa, Raikkonen and Alonso.

Giancarlo Fisichella was 13th in the other Force India, while the BMWs were surprisingly far back in 14th (Nick Heidfeld) and 15th (Robert Kubica), both drivers complaining of a lack of grip and poor balance.

McLaren’s plight was even worse, with Kovalainen and world champion Lewis Hamilton mired in 17th and 18th, behind the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais and 1.7s off the pace.

Renault’s Nelson Piquet and Toro Rosso debutant Sebastien Buemi brought up the rear.


Australian GP free practice session two times

1. ROSBERG Williams 1m26.053s

2. BARRICHELLO Brawn 1m26.157s

3. TRULLI Toyota 1m26.350s

4. WEBBER Red Bull 1m26.370s

5. BUTTON Brawn 1m26.374s

6. GLOCK Toyota 1m26.443s

7. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m26.560s

8. VETTEL Red Bull 1m26.740s

9. SUTIL Force India 1m27.040s

10. MASSA Ferrari 1m27.064s

11. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m27.204s

12. ALONSO Renault 1m27.232s

13. FISICHELLA Force India 1m27.282s

14. HEIDFELD BMW 1m27.317s

15. KUBICA BMW 1m27.398s

16. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m27.479s

17. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m27.802s

18. HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.813s

19. PIQUET Renault 1m27.828s

20. BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m28.076s

Source: itv-f1