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[Hammer278]

'Abbey' isn't performing according to Vettel's expectations:

Sebastian Vettel says Red Bull needs to go "a lot quicker tomorrow" after a frustrating two practice sessions on Friday.

Vettel was only 11th quickest in FP1 before improving to 10th place in the second practice session as the whole of Friday's running was affected by rain. Although times are difficult to read in to, Vettel admitted he was not happy in the first session and that there was a lot of work for the team to do to understand the way the RB8 was working around Albert Park.

"This morning it wasn't very good, I wasn't happy at all in the car," Vettel told reporters in Melbourne. "This afternoon I think it was a bit better. Obviously with the conditions it was difficult to get a lot of running. It was more or less the same for all of us, but with the little time we had in the afternoon it was quite OK.

"It's up to us to find the balance and understand the car a little bit more and learn a little bit more about the car in these conditions on this circuit, and hopefully go a lot quicker tomorrow. Tomorrow the target is to make it into Q3, and then we go from there."

Vettel also said that FP3 would probably not give the team enough time to recover from today's lack of running.

"You can't re-invent the wheel, even though you had a messy Friday due to conditions it doesn't mean that on Saturday you just run the whole hour, you don't have enough tyres for that, and obviously it's about preparing for qualifying mostly. You can't do everything in one hour, so as I said the most important thing now is to make a step overnight, learn a bit more about the car. The laps in the end were important to understand a bit more and then we go from there."

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I wonder what Abbey's issue is. Hopefully it's terminal. But maybe she's just a slow starter.

[Frontrunner]

HELMET CAM this year!

that was pretty cool. felt like i was sitting right in the cockpit.

As for watching the Ferrari, it looks a bit loose in the rear today. but hard to read anything what so ever from the 2 sessions. bring on tomorrow

[LewEngBridewell]

Well, as I'm only surviving off the BBC offerings, I've watched all the coverage I can obtain at the moment. Highlights of 1 minute and 42 seconds. Immense.

From what I can gather, which is difficult when one considers the weather, is that McLaren seem good, while RBR have yet to unlock their full potential.

In other news, HRT registered an early mechanical problem, while Massa put it in the gravel. On both of these counts, it really is nothing new.

[Roth]

Was there today. Clearly nobody showed their hand, and conditions were frustratingly similar both sessions, rain early, cars dribbling out, then with a dry track on for young and old as the time wound up. I feel like Vettel's sandbagging with his comments - the car looked solid. As someone said the Ferrari looked a bit tail happy. And obviously great to see the two McClarens. You can't help but smile when all that chrome flashes by.

And hardly even noticed the duck noses.

[LewEngBridewell]

Was there today. Clearly nobody showed their hand, and conditions were frustratingly similar both sessions, rain early, cars dribbling out, then with a dry track on for young and old as the time wound up. I feel like Vettel's sandbagging with his comments - the car looked solid. As someone said the Ferrari looked a bit tail happy. And obviously great to see the two McClarens. You can't help but smile when all that chrome flashes by.

And hardly even noticed the duck noses.

Great that you're there mate, hope the rest of your weekend is brilliant!

From the appalling amount of viewing I've been able to obtain of the practice sessions, I also didn't really notice the noses any more. It's all fine once you see them in action. As usual, it was loads of fuss over nothing.

[geetface9]

Was there today. Clearly nobody showed their hand, and conditions were frustratingly similar both sessions, rain early, cars dribbling out, then with a dry track on for young and old as the time wound up. I feel like Vettel's sandbagging with his comments - the car looked solid. As someone said the Ferrari looked a bit tail happy. And obviously great to see the two McClarens. You can't help but smile when all that chrome flashes by.

And hardly even noticed the duck noses.

I saw this is your first post. If you'd like, head to the introductions section and introduce yourself!!

[vlad]

Damn, that was one tough night...

Barely held up with FP1, caught myself falling to sleep few times... Woke up just for the second part of FP2, couldn't be better.

Damn, I missed that sound and that cars!

[FerrariFan63]

I haven't got the time to examine what's going on in sufficient detail.

But my eyebrows certainly rose a significant amount when I look at the testing times.

It's true that we won't know for sure until after qualifying, but once they're doing Friday testing, that's getting a bit late for sandbagging. But I can't believe we're going to have a Mercedes/Force India front row.

[Blackavar]

But I can't believe we're going to have a Mercedes/Force India front row.

That would be sweet.

So, early signs suggest Red Bull are struggling a tad and that Mercedes might be telling the truth afterall? Interesting.

[FerrariFan63]

But I can't believe we're going to have a Mercedes/Force India front row.

That would be sweet.

So, early signs suggest Red Bull are struggling a tad and that Mercedes might be telling the truth afterall? Interesting.

I'm starting to catch up. Passive F-Ducts. Interesting. Wonder if the FI has them as well.

Don't have sky, but there is plenty of radio coverage on BBC iplayer. I have listened to whole races on the radio when I was unable to watch on TV due to having to go places, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. So, listening to 1hr 40 minutes of FP2 coverage now.

Bit of a annoyance to not be able to watch the quali live. I used to really like the early morning races/qualifyings as I could wake up early, watch them, but still have the whole Saturday for "life".

[vlad]

Don't forget that top teams get miracles done over night.

[FerrariFan63]

Man those steps in the front nose look ugly. I'd seen them in photos of course, but out on the track, they look even worse in context.

Edit: DRS zones enabled in the last part of the practice. That could explain some teams being way off the pace if they didn't have DRS until near the end. Were there any teams that didn't use DRS/weren't out late enough?

[scotty]

Regretting staying up for FP1 today. SO tired... my impressions (from first practice):

- McLaren's pace seemed fairly effortless.
- Red Bull had decent fuel loads in FP1
- Mercedes looked like it was handling excellently, but for them i feel it might depend on whatever fuel they were running.
- Pic and the Hispanias are going to struggle to qualify
- Caterham are definitely mixing it in the midfield
- Ferrari looks so hard to drive on the limit, which suggests they are still lost in terms of setup, but i think the potential is there

[vlad]

Force India boys look great, and that's what I wanna see. Perez too.

[What's Burning?]

The Ferrari seemed a handful, I can't wait till tomorrow, dry and having to go at our first real showing of the hands. BTW, tire rules is 11 sets of dry tires, I forgot which is which, 6 prime and 5 options or vice versa. They have to give one dry compound back after Friday practice... I'm piecing all of this together from commentary, but I haven't come across the actual rules yet. Haven't made much of an attempt though.