Michael Schumacher had the fastest time on Friday in the opening practice for Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, despite crashing. The German lost control of his Ferrari at high speed and slid sideways into the barriers. However he walked away unhurt from the spectacular accident. His lap of 1:32.130 was good enough to keep him on top to the end of the day ahead of David Coulthard in a McLaren and his new Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello. World Champion Mika Hakkinen was in fourth, Jaques Villeneuve in fifth and Pedro Diniz in sixth. Jaguar director Jackie Stewart, was less happy after seeing his cars, driven by Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert, wind up 10th and 17th, while Eddie Jordan would not have been much happier as Frentzen finished in 7th and Trulli in 15th.
Schumacher still finished the opening day of the season with the fastest time - although he was just 0.014 of-a-second ahead of David Coulthard's McLaren. Coulthard almost went out at the same corner as his rival, but managed to keep control during a 360-degree spin and eventually went on to post the second best time. Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was third fastest in his first outing for Ferrari, 0.3 of-a-sec back, while Mika Hakkinen launched his bid for a third successive drivers' crown with the fourth best time. Hakkinen was half-a-second adrift in the other McLaren and almost crashed himself on his final lap of the day as he spun round in the home straight.
Button, who will become Britain's youngest grand prix driver in Sunday's race, had made a promising start finishing 14th at the end of first practice. The 20-year-old had fulfilled his father John's prediction he would make a quick impact by lying second on the timesheets in his Williams BMW. Button gradually dropped down the order in the second session and despite briefly moving back up to 15th, eventually finished 18th fastest. Button was more importantly just 0.4 of-a-sec off the pace set by team-mate Ralf Schumacher who dropped to 16th late on with the suspicion that others had put on fresh tyres. Former Champion Jacques Villeneuve was fifth fastest - but 1.4sec adrift of Schumacher - with Eddie Irvine 10th in his first outing for Jaguar Racing following the switch from Ferrari. Team-mate Johnny Herbert had a similar problem in a mixed first day for Jaguar as he wound up 17th.
