In the first practice session, fastest was Kubica (1:26.927) followed by Rosberg, Button, Massa, Vettel and Alonso. At the bottom of the timing chart was Chandhok and Glock (1:34.925). The session was paused to clear up some debris after Kobayashi went off; a few laps later his front wing came off and caused a second red flag so his Sauber could be recovered from a gravel trap.
The two McLarens topped the chart in practice #2: Hamilton (1:25.801) was 0.2secs ahead of teammate Button, followed by Webber, Schumacher, Petrov(!) and Buemi. The slowest time was 1:32.117 by Glock but three drivers (di Grassi, Chandhok and Senna) didn’t post times at all. There was rain at the start of the session which cleared up after about 15 minutes, but then it poured down again mid-session, and again just before the end. Chandhok parked his Hispania car at the end of the pit lane after losing drive.
Hamilton had a run in with the Melbourne police: they impounded his road car after he was caught power sliding his Mercedes as he left Albert Park!
Practice 3:
Petrov is first to post a time = 1:28.597
The McLarens are the last to set lap times
LH jumps to the top of the timing sheet on his first flying lap – 1:25.706
Senna has parked his car
30 mins in to the 1hr session; top 6 are LH, MW, JB, SV, MS, NR
15mins left; MW, MS, FA, SV, LH, NR
Session ends; the fastest 8 drivers are MW (1:24.719), FA, MS, SV, NR, JB, LH, AS; slowest was Senna @ 1:36.649