If the familiarisation session (held only at new Grands Prix) at Albert Park is an indication of things to come, Jacques Villeneuve will be the one to watch during Saturday's Australian Grand Prix Qualifying. Villeneuve's time of 1:33.401 (126.985 mph/204.357 km/h) was nearly a second faster than team-mate Damon Hill who placed the second quickest with a time of 1:34.392. Jean Alesi recorded the third best result of the day. Michael Schumacher, Jos Verstappen and Rubens Barrichello rounded out the top six times.

During the session, rookie Giancarlo Fisichella (who replaces Taki Inoue at Minardi) crashed but escaped unhurt. Damon Hill, Pedro Lamy, Ricardo Rosset, Pedro Diniz, Mika Hakkinen, Rubens Barrichello, Jean Alesi and Ukyo Katayama all had spins.

Jacques Villeneuve was very happy about his first performance in Formula One: "I was not expecting to be up there with an advantage. It is a surprise but it feels great."
"I'm where any driver would want to be. That's why we worked so hard driving this winter. But it's only the first day and things are bound to change."
"It shows we have a good base to work on. It would be good to stay in front for Sunday - that's what we are here for."

His team-mate Damon Hill responded by the fast time of Villeneuve by saying: "Jacques really got on with the job and there is going to be some though competition between us. Everyone has said he is very quick." He called the new circuit a "fun track" and that: "It would now get quicker the whole time. You are probably looking at another couple of seconds between today's times and final qualifying."

Michael Schumacher had trouble setting up the F310 and he complained about the red flag situations, a total of four times: "Always when I was in a fast lap there was a red flag."
"The car went well as expected. I would have been in front with just one fast lap."