11.50am Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the first practice session of the Australian Grand Prix. It's a sunny day in Melbourne and the teams are getting ready. Lotus has been on pit-stop practice. Virgin reports: "Engineering meeting just finished, tyre, fuel and set-up plans for the day all set".

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Ferrari too have completed pit-stop practice.

One new face out there today ... Force India test driver Paul di Resta gets his first outing this morning when he takes over Adrian Sutil's car

Chris emails: "I don't understand why the established teams seem to have such short memories of teams being off the pace by 3-5 seconds. When Minardi was running in the late 90s and 2000s they and Jordan were off the pace by that much if not more. Help me understand?". There's an element of them being worried their cars will be hampered by slower backmarkers, but you're right. There have always been slower cars - go back and some of them were proportionately much slower than the current backmarkers - and it's the kind of comments which show at times the teams are out of touch with the public who in generally like new participants while you get the impression some of the teams want only the elite taking part.

Coming up in about seven hours is our interview with Sir Stirling Moss. Laurence Edmondson went to chat with him in hospital a couple of days ago, and we are pleased to report Sir Stirling is making good progress after his accident

The engines are fired up and we are almost ready to go. Hamilton being strapped in, Button is already set.

Trulli's Lotus is the first out followed by Liuzzi and then a cavalcade of cars

Jim asks about the weather for the weekend. Saturday and Sunday will be sunny with a maximum of 32 degrees for the race itself. There might be rain but we are promised it will be at night

"Radio checks done. Installation laps then back in," reports Lotus.

Bruno Senna and Mark Webber exit the pits and join the track. Nine of the guys have never driven the Albert Park circuit

"I agree with Chris, there would be always teams which may lack pace compared to front runners but some of them would come up least in some circuits like Force India last year. You won't know unless team participate for sometime. If they continue to flounder they may change hands like has been happening for many years." - Anurag

Everyone is now out or has been out with the exception of Michael Schumacher, four-time winner here

Chandhok in the HRT out and back in without mishap

"Both installation laps completed with no problems," reports Lotus. "Small aero change for Heikki before next run." Force India and Red Bull cars also back in.

Schumacher emerges from the garage and is the last man out

"Did the four teams made the change as instructed to their diffuser and did it pass the inspection," asks Ben. Yes, they have, the overly large holes have all been sorted out. The McLaren engineers insist it will make almost no difference in performance

A few reports the track is slippery. Force India admits the practice sessions today won't reveal much and it will only be tomorrow in the third session anything significant will happen.

Schumacher back into the Mercedes garage and peace returns to Albert Park

The pit-lane speed limit will be 60km/h throughout the weekend. "It's just matter of waiting for the right moment to make the first run," reports Ferrari. "The plan is to use just one set of tyres."

Bruno Senna heads back out in the HRT

McLaren may claim the diffuser issue won't cost them any time but other teams beg to differ. One pundit has just said it could be between one and two-tenths of as second a lap.

A close-up shot of Senna and you can see the car bumping around. It's going to be hard work for the drivers over the weekend.

BBC are reporting Virgin has to make major alterations to its car as its fuel tank is too small to get to the end of races. While at this stage it might not be aiming to complete races it would be embarrassing for it to run out if it got to that stage.

Bruno Senna records 1:39.329, the first time of the day

Senna improves to 1:37.989. The on-board camera showed how bumpy the circuit is.

The Virgin of di Grasse heads out of the garage with quite a bit of difficulty

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Stunning fact of the day .. Michael Schumacher went to see Lady Gaga last night - in concert not at her hotel or anything. My daughters will, for the first time, be jealous of an F1 driver.

Karun Chandhok, who managed five laps in total in Bahrain, is out and is half a second slower than Senna on the first sector

Chandhok records 1:37.278, quicker than his team-mate. That has to be a boost to him after a wretched time in Bahrain. Kovalainen sets a 1:36.810

Here goes Lewis Hamilton ... and he's 2.459 seconds quicker on the first sector ... and he sets a time of 1:30.076 ... the speed he caught up one of the Renaults highlighted the gulf between the top cars and the rest. Six seconds quicker than the quickest of the HRTs.

Di Resta, Force India's test driver, sets a 1:33.756, highly respectable. Virgin's Lucas di Grassi posts 1:40.581

Hulkenberg in the Williams 1:35.786 and then Hamilton flies through to 1:28.680

Kobayashi makes a complete mess and runs over a cone on a turn and damages his front wing ...he limps back to the pits. Schumacher posts a 1:28.629, fastest lap

Debris from Kobayashi's car is messing things up and the red flags are showing

Virgin will have to build a new chassis to accommodate the bigger fuel tank it needs if it is to complete a race … and that means it will have to pass a whole set of stringent FIA tests.

Schumacher's fastest time has been discounted as it was completed under the red flag so Hamilton still leads the standings with 1:28.680

Chris emails: "Sitting at work in Bangkok. Thanks for the running commentary. Wish I could be there." Tim asks: "Hi, what happens to the 55m rule in the pit lane if a safety car comes out? You could have 20 plus cars in there at once. How would teams know when to release cars, it would be chaotic." Spot on, that could be a real mess and a few of the teams are worried for sure

OK, the mess has been cleared and we resume. Schumacher will have to start all over again and he might be in hot water after not lifting off the gas when the red flag was out. If he gets referred to the stewards then he will be worried one of them is Damon Hill ... and the pair go back a long way!

"What is the fastest lap time recorded at this circuit and by whom?" asks Charlie. Michael Schumacher's fastest lap of 1:24.125 set during the 2004 race still stands as the official lap record. The best lap time last year was a 1:24.855 set by Jenson Button in Q2

Webber goes fourth with 1:32.331. And Vettel's out and powering round the circuit

Rosberg is second behind Hamilton with 1:29.768 - Vettel puts in a 1:29.737 to leapfrog him

Jenson Button clocks 1:29.541 and Rosberg does 1:28.357 to go fastest

Alonso 1:29.603 as Button goes fastest with 1:27.768. The McLarens making a mark. Trulli's Lotus has hydraulic problems but they seem to have fixed it and he should be back out soon. "Not a problem we have seen before but now fixed."

Alonso's Ferrari three seconds off the pace. Rosberg does 1:27.659 and he is now fastest

Button 1:27.482 fastest from Rosberg and Hamilton and Kubica

It's all getting cluttered out there. Webber slowed a lap or so back to try to give himself some clear track

And Webber just got in the way of team-mate Vettel. Jaime Alguersuari just went wide and brought a shed load of dirt and grass back onto the track with him

Red flag and again it's Kamui Kobayashi but this time it wasn't his fault as his wing just flew off and he careered into the gravel at turn 3. That wing had only just been bolted on - not very well, clearly

FIA official Jo Bauer arrives at the Sauber garage looking stern.

About to re-start. Button fastest with 1:27.482, Kubica second with a 1:27.582 and behind him is Rosberg then Hamilton then Vettel

Ferrari being very cagey. "Difficult to make any judgement so far". Alonso back in ninth and Massa eighth

Virgin reports Glock wants some changes to improve handling over bumps

Philippe in Canada asks: "Regarding Virgin and the fuel tank issue, was it deliberate cheating? Are they allowed to race this weekend?" No, not cheating but certainly embarrassing. Yes, the cars can race but were they to look as if they were going the distance they would need to nurse the fuel. To clarify, they can't complete a race driving flat out ...they could probably nurse a car home if needed

Twenty minutes left. Senna improves to 1:35.964, still eight seconds off Button's time of 1:27.482

Button - 1:27.482, Kubica - 1:27.582, Rosberg - 1:27.659, Hamilton - 1:27.793

Trulli ends up on the grass. Barrichello posts 1:29.712 and is back in 13th.

Brief Yellow flag as Petrov loses some of his car as he runs wide

A spin for Heikki Kovalainen at Turn 9 ... then Chanhok runs wide

Rosberg sets the quickest time and is immediately trumped by Kubica with 1:26.92. Vettel improves to fifth, with the McLarens third and fourth. And another Yellow flag as Pedro de la Rosa stops on the track at turn 4. Not a great morning for the Saubers

Virgin reports Glock is back in. "His car seems to be behaving differently to Lucas's. We'll check and send him out for the last few laps hopefully."

Ok, we're running again

Tim emails to say he is sitting at work in South Melbourne listening to the sound of roaring F1 engines. I could think of many worse places to be ... Buemi 1:28.014

Petrov's spin not serious ... he's been sent back out with no changes or repairs so it must have been mud flying off the car. Massa 1:27.868 to go fifth

Schumacher reports he is much happier here than in Bahrain - he's eighth fastest. Alonso going for it ...

Webber sets 1:29.147 and he's back in 13th

Bruno Senna goes wide at turn 15 and onto the grass. Massa 1:27.511 into fourth ahead of Hamilton. Alonso 1:27.919 and up to seventh

And that's finished, Robert Kubica is fastest for Renault ahead of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg with Jenson Button in third and Felipe Massa fourth. Heikki Kovalainen doesn't even complete the lap, just parks his car on the side and starts a walk home. Schumacher the last to come in

So that's it for the first session. We will be back in a little under two hours for the second practice session at 4.30pm (0530 GMT). In the meantime, questions, observations or general chit-chat, emails us by clicking here.