The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team had a solid first day of practice in Melbourne today. The day's programme centred principally on tyre choice for the race on Sunday, and the team will analyse data tonight in order to take the correct decision.

Fernando Alonso: As always on the first day in Melbourne, conditions were very slippery, and the poor grip makes it hard to achieve a good balance on the car. The tyre choice is not clear at the moment, and we will have to analyse our data this evening in order to make our decision.

Giancarlo Fisichella: Positions were not important today, as it was about testing the two tyre compounds. We had a good day overall, and did the laps we needed. There is still work to do on the car balance, but I am still very optimistic for the rest of the weekend.

Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations: Under the 2005 regulations, every lap in practice is precious, and we therefore had to accomplish as much work as possible in parallel today in order to make the necessary evaluations and tests for our technical programmes. The second session provided us with plenty of information, and was free of incident; on this basis, we possess as much information as possible in order to make our choices on tyres and engine settings for the rest of the weekend.