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Friday, March 2
Ferraris fastest in first practices
Reuters
MELBOURNE -- Ferrari and McLaren were already eyeing each other warily after the first day of practice for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Friday.
|  | | McLaren's Mika Hakkinen, left, talks with a team official before the start of the first practice in Australia on Friday. |
Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello of Brazil set the fastest time and his team mate Michael Schumacher, despite flipping his car and crashing into a wall of tires, finished third.
The two were split by the yellow Jordan of Italy's Jarno Trulli, who pushed McLaren's David Coulthard of Britain and Finn Mika Hakkinen back into fourth and fifth.
Despite Trulli's surprise performance, however, Ferrari and McLaren were already focusing on each other.
"It is a little early to say where we are at, but unless I am reading it wrong, it is pretty obvious who our main rivals are going to be and I think there is going to be a gap to the third-placed team," McLaren principal Ron Dennis said at a news conference.
"It was a little more tense than normal and I think there will be a little more intensity this year."
Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt was more circumspect during the conference, as he and Dennis sat stony-faced and separated by Minardi's new team owner Paul Stoddart.
"I would say the first impressions are favourable," Todt said.
"I think we have good potential, even if today did not really paint a clear picture of the pecking order for the teams because of variables such as tyres and fuel loads.
"We concentrated on finding the best settings for the car and I think we worked in the right direction." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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