Australian Grand Prix practice in pictures

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Nico Rosberg races past the Melbourne parkland scenery

Even though it’s the second race of the year seeing F1 cars blasting around Melbourne still feels like where the world championship begins.

Most of the cars have a few subtle aerodynamic changes for this race, like McLaren’s new sidepod-mounted rear mirrors and Sauber’s interpretation of the ‘F-duct’. And Renault, HRT and a few other are sporting some new logos. Check out the Melbourne-spec cars below.

2010 Australian Grand Prix

    Images (C) Ferrari spa, Renault/LAT, Williams/LAT, Bridgestone / Ercole Colombo, www.mclaren.com, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India F1 Team, Lotus F1, Virgin Racing

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    19 comments on “Australian Grand Prix practice in pictures”

    1. Hajnr
      26th March 2010, 13:54

      Where are AustraliaGP predictions?

      1. Profile Photo

        Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
        26th March 2010, 14:17

        The predictions for this round have been opened since the start of the week. I mentioned it in the daily round-up, you can find the entry form on the Community page.

        There will also be an article promoting on the home page later on today.

    2. steph
      26th March 2010, 14:05

      Beautiful pictures. Aus looks stunning too, much nicer than just sand!
      There’s a couple that say Massa but are actually Alonso and vice versa from rows 11 and 12 I think.

    3. Chalky
      26th March 2010, 14:27

      Looks great. Loving the pictures, they make great wallpaper.
      Looks like Lewis forgot to slow down after practice.
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8589435.stm
      :D

      1. Profile Photo

        Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
        26th March 2010, 14:32

        Already posted in the round-up: https://www.racefans.net/2010/03/26/f1-fanatic-round-up-2632010/comment-page-1/#comment-350859

    4. Dr. Gonzo
      26th March 2010, 16:27

      “McLaren’s new sidepod-mounted rear wings”

      I assume you meant to say “wing mirrors” or have McLaren found yet another loophole in the regulations :-D (and they’re actually mounted on the sidepod vanes).

      1. Profile Photo

        Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
        26th March 2010, 16:39

        Indeed I did – changed, thanks.

        1. Dr. Gonzo
          26th March 2010, 16:53

          That’s what you get for staying up all night watching practice and blogging and cranking out two excellent analyses and rounding up a great selection of pictures!

          Seriously Keith, I’m impressed with your efforts since going full tilt on the Blog. It’s rapidly becoming one of the premier F1 sites on the web.

    5. iceshiel
      26th March 2010, 16:49

      Even the grandstands are almost full on practice day!

      1. sato113
        26th March 2010, 18:47

        so much different to bahrain. I bet there were more camels than people during practice then!

    6. Giuliano Vilela
      26th March 2010, 17:03

      My god, that HRT is ugly :D

      1. RandomChimp
        26th March 2010, 18:46

        It’s an ugly duckling (hopefully in more way than one).

    7. mani
      26th March 2010, 17:08

      is it me, or does the f duct in those mclarens seem to have become a bit low and flat?

      1. Mclaren
        26th March 2010, 17:27

        No its the same design. Modifying the diffuser has been the main focus this week.

    8. Hatham Al-Shabibi
      26th March 2010, 18:17

      Your photography is unbelievable. You really catch the “poetry in motion”. Good job and keep up the hard work.

    9. Salty
      26th March 2010, 21:45

      Great pictures. Nice to see Melbourne with the partially clouded conditions. Makes a much more visual skyscape.

      Wonder if team Woking will continue to impinge on the Mercedes ‘silver arrow’ moniker next year? The Merc really does grey, next to the chrome McLaren.

      Renault looks great in sunlight, cloud and rain.

      Would be nice to see a difference in colour between the Red Bull owned teams. Maybe RBR should go for part chrome, part blue livery as per the caffeine loaded cans, with STR hanging with the darker schematic.

      Track buffed-up great as usual though. Hope race plays out as well as it looks.

    10. the Sri Lankan
      26th March 2010, 22:53

      i used to be interested in F1…its now weird without Toyota being there…im sure even the Honda fans that stopped following F1 would be able to back me up

    11. Adrian from Melbourne
      27th March 2010, 1:57

      Firstly to Keith, you run an AWESOME site, I absolutley love it. The indepth articles and great quality and size pictures rock. The other “official” F1 sites are no where near what you are offering here. F1Fanatic is now my first stop for F1 news!

      Secondly, it’s great to see people enjoying the Melbourne race. It’s a great city full of sports crazy people and come Sunday there will easily be 100k at Albert Park.

      Enjoy the race everyone I hope it’s not a borefest like Bahrain.

      Cheers
      Adrian

    12. Chaz
      31st March 2010, 14:04

      Great photo’s yet again and thaks to the photographer. Adrian Neweys Red Bull really is the pinnacle of F1 design…

    Comments are closed.