Giancarlo Fisichella powered his DHL Jordan Honda EJ12 to third fastest time in the opening practice session at Albert Park, Melbourne, the Italian ace lapping quickly in a drying track to line up behind reigning World Champion Michael Schumacher and Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello.  With the second practice session still to come at 1pm, the first session of the new season gave some indication of things to come, although the wet-dry conditions masked the likely pecking order.

  Takuma Sato, making his Formula One debut for DHL Jordan Honda this weekend, drove beautifully throughout the session, taking 11th fastest time and making steady progress throughout.  MSchumacher's time of 1:28.804 was almost three seconds faster than Fisichella's third best time of 1:31.693 while Sato achieved a 1:32.904.  With the top two thirds of the field finishing the session on dry tyres, those who had remained on wets or intermediates were well down, Minardi's Aex Yoong bringing up the rear of the field with 1:44.011.

  Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were 4th and 10th respectively, Felipe Massa 5th in his Sauber Petronas ahead of De Le Rosa's Jaguar, Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Arrows, Mika Salo's Toyota and Jensen Button's Renault.  The second Toyota of Allan McNish was in 14th position ahead of BAR Honda's Jacques Villeneuve - team mate Oliver Panis down in 21st - while former Jordan star Jarno Trulli was 16th in his first outing for Renault.  David Coulthard was a disappointing 20th in his McLaren, with team mate Kii Raikkonen 17th - neither apparently running enough laps to put on dry weather tyres.