04/03/2005
NEWS STORY
Red Bull Racing test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi was fastest in the opening free practice session as the 2005 Formula One season began in Melbourne. The Italian ended the day fourth on aggregate after spinning off the track during the afternoon. His team mates David Coulthard and Christian Klien were 5th and 10th in the first session, 12th and 17th in the second.
David Coulthard: We are reasonably happy with the progression of what we did today. The use of the tyres and car ran without any mechanical problems so now the questions is our tyre choice and what the weather will do tomorrow. I am really looking forward to knowing exactly where we stand, in term of performance against the other teams.
Christian Klien: I didn't do many laps this morning, when the level of circuit grip was very low. In the afternoon I planned to do three runs to check tyre consistency with the two different compounds. The chassis balance felt good, so I was quite confident, but the brakes started to feel a bit soft as temperatures increased. I had a throttle problem on my third run, which forced me to stop early. My lap time reflects as much.
Vitantonio Liuzzi: My first hour on the track was quite good because we improved throughout the session. I am trying to do the best job I can for my team mates and was pretty happy with the way things started. The RB1 responded well to changes and everything seemed positive. The morning turned out to be much better then the afternoon, of course. I put a wheel on the grass while overtaking another car – one of our own that had just come out of the pits, I think – and spun because I picked up some dirt on my tires. That ended my day, which was a real shame.
Günther Steiner, Technical Director: The main objective today was to establish which tire compound will be most suitable for the race. We managed to accumulate some useful data, although we were obviously compromised a little by the problems that Tonio and Christian suffered. We traced Christian's throttle trouble to a faulty sensor.