Massa off to flyer

Felipe Massa declared his first official practice sessions of the 2007 Formula One season a resounding success after recording the fastest lap time on the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.

The Brazilian completed the morning session in second place before going one better in the afternoon as he and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen completed a Ferrari one-two.

Ferrari have performed well during the winter test period with Massa particularly impressive, recently setting the pace in the final test in Bahrain.

After blistering heat seared down on the circuit yesterday, Melbourne’s notoriously unpredictable weather meant the drivers took to the track in wet conditions today after an early-morning downpour.

But Massa was pleased to be able to test driving in both wet and dry conditions ahead of the Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

“It was a good day,” the 25-year-old said. “We did a good job of comparing the two types of dry-weather tyre and this morning we also got the opportunity to run in the wet, which led us to see that the balance of the F2007 is pretty good.

“This was a positive start to the weekend, but of course what counts is tomorrow’s qualifying and most of all, Sunday’s race.”

Raikkonen was also pleased with the results of the day’s practice, adding: “We worked mainly on comparing the two types of tyre that we have.

“The car seems to be well balanced at this track and we managed to pick up a good base line of data to analyse for qualifying and for the race.”