Kimi| Ferrari Rocks| Iceman| Raikkonen| Melbourne

The Iceman is back and back with a bang!!!. Under clear skies and in bright sunshine on 14th March , the Finn laid down a marker for Sunday's race with a best lap time of one minute, 26.461 seconds in his initial practice session. Raikkonen won in Melbourne last year on his Ferrari debut and is chasing a third successive victory after ending 2007 on a high with triumphs in China and Brazil taking him to the championship The first 45 minutes saw the Ferraris battling each other for fastest time, with Felipe Massa gaining that with 1m 27.524s ahead of Kimi Raikkonen 1m 27.709s. Then the McLarens came out and Lewis Hamilton worked down to 1m 27.386s to go fastest. Right at the end Raikkonen did two laps quicker than that, the better of which was 1m 26.461s. That compared very favourably with his pole time of 1m 26.072s from last year despite the ban on traction control and engine braking. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, a sensational rookie last year before losing out to Raikkonen by a single point in Brazil, was top until the Ferrari driver bettered his time by 0.487 with two minutes remaining.