Well here we are, the waiting is finally over, as the first free practice session of the 2005 Formula One World Championship season - the longest in the sport's history - gets underway.

This time last year Ferrari blitzed the opposition - sending shockwaves throughout the paddock - dominating free practice, qualifying, the race and (pretty much) the rest of the season.

This year things should be a little different, at least as far as free practice is concerned, since the two-race engine and tyre rules mean we're going to see the 'big guns' doing far fewer laps, indeed Ron Dennis predicts we could see some drivers doing just five laps on Fridays.

As the cars prepare to go out, the air temperature is 20 degrees C, while the track temperature is 30 degrees.

Hard to believe but even at this late stage it is unclear whether Minardi will be allowed to participate. Minardi boss Paul Stoddart is claiming that Ferrari still hasn't given its approval. The Italian team claims that it is waiting on proof that it is the only team blocking Minardi's entry. A great start to the season.

Four teams are running third drivers in today's sessions, Jordan (Robert Doornbos), Toyota (Ricardo Zonta), Red Bull (Tonio Liuzzi) and McLaren (Pedro de la Rosa). These are the drivers that will do all the donkey work today.

As the lights go green, Jacques Villeneuve is first out, followed by Liuzzi, Doornbos, Klien, de la Rosa, Ralf Schumacher, Sato, Trulli, Coulthard and Zonta.

As is ever the case, having completed an installation lap the drivers return to their garages.

Three minutes into the session and Karthikeyan makes his F1 public debut, followed by Webber, Button, Montoya, Monteiro, Massa and Heidfeld.

Eight minutes into the session, the two Ferraris emerge, to boos from the crowd. This really isn't what F1 needs.

The Renaults have yet to appear.

Ten minutes into the session and Liuzzi is the first driver to go out for a second run, moments later he is joined by de la Rosa and Coulthard.

The Italian posts the benchmark, which at 1:33.405 is around 9s off last year's pole time.

Doornbos is on track as is Klien, while Liuzzi improves to 1:31.462. de la Rosa goes second with a 1:32.779, only the second driver to post a time.

Liuzzi improves with a 1:30.512 as de la Rosa also improves (1:30.953), Zonta goes third and Doornbos fourth.

Twenty minutes into the session and only four drivers have posted times, Pedro de la Rosa going quickest with a 1:29.336.

The Spaniard improves again (1:29.209) as Monteiro comes out to play, meanwhile Fisichella finally makes an appearance in the Renault.

A 1:28.083 sees Ricardo Zonta go quickest, edging out de la Rosa by 0.126s. With twenty-five minutes gone we have still only seen four drivers post a time.

Tiago Monteiro is the fifth driver to get his name on the timesheets, however at 1:45.247 it's merely an exploratory lap. Maybe not… teammate Karthikeyan posts 1:46.937.

Fernando Alonso is on track in the second Renault, as we reach the halfway stage of this first free practice session of 2005. Zonta remains quickest, ahead of de la Rosa, Liuzzi, Doornbos, Karthikeyan and Monteiro.

Pedro de la Rosa improves with a 1:28.612 as local hero Mark Webber takes to the track.

The Australian is the first of the 'big guns' to post a time, he goes fourth with a 1:29.594, that's 1.304s off de la Rosa's benchmark.

Next time around the local hero improves (1:29.198) as Ralf, Sato, Trulli and Button emerge from their garages.

Ralf goes fifth with a 1:29.491, slotting in right behind Webber, as Button goes seventh with a 1:31.155.

Liuzzi is on a hot lap, going quickest in the first two sectors then finally crossing the line at 1:25.967, that's 2.3s quicker than anything we've seen previously. Elsewhere, Webber improves to fourth, Ralf to fifth, Button goes sixth and Trulli eighth.

With fifteen minutes remaining only eleven drivers have posted times, of those the tow Jordan race drivers both remain more than 12s off the pace.