Drivers Get Acquainted with the Albert Park Circuit

03/08/96

Atlas Team F1 reported that the drivers entered in this weekend's Australian Grand Prix are familiarizing themselves with the race circuit at Albert Park in Melbourne Australia. Last year's Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher, who inspected the track on a motor-scooter earlier this week, had the fourth fastest practice time behind Jacques Villeneuve (fastest), Damon Hill (second) and Jean Alesi (third).

Rookie driver Giancarlo Fisichella crashed during the practice sessions, but was unhurt. Earlier this week Fisichella replaced Taki Inoue as Minardi's driver because of Inoue's sponsorship problems. Damon Hill, Pedro Lamy, Ricardo Rosset, Pedro Diniz, Mika Hakkinen, Rubens Barrichello, Jean Alesi and Ukyo Katayama all spun out during their test sessions.

This season's favored driver Damon Hill called the Albert Park circuit a fun track, and, taking stock of the practice times, predicted that drivers would shave another couple seconds off their times between initial practices and final qualifying.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel