Slow start for champion Hamilton

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Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton finished a lowly 16th after the first practice session ahead of the Australian GP.

With the cars sporting newly-designed front and rear wings, as well as a return to slick tyres, it was tip-toe stuff at first around Melbourne's Albert Park for the first practice session. And come the end of the initial 90 minutes run under blue skies and in warm sunshine ahead of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton was left languishing.

However, it was apparent McLaren are playing cat-and-mouse games as team-mate Heikki Kovalainen underlined there is clear potential in the car as he was fifth quickest. The Finn finished almost 1.6 seconds ahead of the Briton, and just under 0.8secs behind an unexpected one-two as Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets ahead of his Williams team-mate in Kazuki Nakajima.

Williams were one of three teams - along with Brawn GP and Toyota - cleared on Thursday by race stewards of using an illegal diffuser, a key aerodynamic component that aids the airflow beneath a car.

Just 0.049secs separated the Williams duo, with 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen a close third, finishing fractions behind the Japanese in his Ferrari.

The Brawn GP pairing of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, who had blown everyone away with their speed in testing, sandwiched Kovalainen in fourth and sixth.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who was denied the title last season by a point from Hamilton, finished seventh and almost a second down on Rosberg, whose fellow German Timo Glock was eighth.

The Force India of Adrian Sutil was ninth, followed by Fernando Alonso in his Renault, and then the first of the BMW Saubers in Nick Heidfeld.

As for Hamilton, he was 2.355secs off Rosberg's pace and the last of the Mercedes powered cars as Brawn GP and Force India both run with the German manufacturers engines. However, it is clear there is more to come if Kovalainen's pace is anything to go by.

Sebastian Vettel, now driving for Red Bull after switching from sister team Toro Rosso, finished bottom of the timesheets. The young German, of whom big things are expected this season, managed just four laps due to a technical issue with his car that forced him to pull over to one side of the track.