It seems that Mark Webber knows his home weather all too well – when he predicted that rain might come and spice things up during the Aussie GP – as a slight drizzle before the practice session took off turned into proper rain some minutes later. Under the circumstances, most of the drivers decided to stay in the garage and wait for some “drier times” to test their single-seaters.
That eventually happened 20 minutes into the second practice session, when first Nico Rosberg, and afterwards Button and Hamilton, set some proper fastest times of their own. Before the other drivers got the chance to go out the track and set some competitive times, the rain started to pour down the Albert Park circuit once again.
That being said, again the majority of drivers decided to wait in their garages, until a few minutes of dry track in the final stages of FP2. Eventually, only local hero Mark Webber and 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher managed to score some decent lap times, ending the session in 3rd and 4th respectively.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was set to take control of the timing reports in the final stages of the FP2, but he made a mistake when approaching Turn 6 – touched the grass while braking – and spun his RB6 in the process. Consequently, he had to settle for the time he had registered under rainy conditions, meaning 16th overall.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso also ended the second practice session more than 3 seconds off the pace, after failing to make the best of the 15-minute dry track window midway through FP2.
After both HRT drivers managed to complete some decent laps in FP1, Chandhok now experienced a gearbox problem after less than ½ of lap, while Senna missed the entire session due to a fuel pressure problem with his car.
01. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:25.801
02. Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:26.076
03. Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) 1:26.248
04. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) 1:26.511
05. Vitaly Petrov (Renault) 1:26.732
06. Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:26.832
07. Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) 1:26.834
08. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India-Mercedes) 1:26.835
09. Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth) 1:26.904
10. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:26.956
11. Robert Kubica (Renault) 1:27.108
12. Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber-Ferrari) 1:27.108
13. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) 1:27.455
14. Nico Hulkenberg (Williams-Cosworth) 1:27.545
15. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1:29.025
16. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) 1:29.134
17. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:29.591
18. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus-Cosworth) 1:29.860
19. Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:30.510
20. Jarno Trulli (Lotus-Cosworth) 1:30.695
21. Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) 1:32.117
22. Lucas di Grassi (Virgin-Cosworth)
23. Karun Chandhok (HRT-Cosworth)
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