Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso), Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India), Timo Glock (Toyota), Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren), Nelson Piquet (Renault) and Mark Webber (Red Bull) take part in the Friday press conference in Australia.

Q: (Juha Päätalo - Financial Times Germany) Heikki, not only did you manage to stay on the track, as you said, but you also got some very good lap times. How much confidence are you taking with you for the rest of the weekend both personally and technically, and was it a kind of a re-setting of last year's experience here?

HK: About the re-setting last year, I think I re-set it already last year, so coming into this weekend I wasn't worried about last year, it's all passed and there's nothing I can do about it anymore other than trying to do a better job this time. Like I said, the sessions went pretty smoothly, I'm reasonably happy with the car, with both types of tyres. The lap times seem to be quite competitive, this is the way it should be. I'm looking forward to more competitive times and like Mark said, this early you just don't know exactly where you are or where everybody is on Friday and after the practice sessions, so we need to wait and see, but I'm certainly taking positive confidence from today, and positive energy from today. I feel very good, I feel confident with the car, technically as well, I feel the set-up is OK, so I think we have a good base to work from for a successful weekend. On Sunday we will know how good it will be, but certainly it's a good start for my weekend.

Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) According to what you saw today, Heikki, who is your hardest competitor here: is it Lewis or Ferrari?

HK: I think that's a difficult question to answer. I don't know what the other teams were doing. Lewis, for sure, is strong, I've known that since the winter testing. He's very confident and he already did a great job last year, so he will be there, there's no doubt about that. Ferrari were strong here last year, they were strong all the way through the last year, so I'm sure they both will be there as well. But we should not under-estimate the other teams as well: BMW, Renault, Red Bull, Williams, all these guys can be there, so I don't want to make too many predictions at the moment. Everybody is an opponent for me and I'm alert to anyone's attack.

Q: (Will Buxton - Australasian Motorsport News) Mark, comments came out this morning about the GPDA. How hopeful are you that the three guys in the back row become a part of it, and the three guys in the back row, how important a role do you see the GPDA playing? Obviously, it's your rookie year and you've got a lot to think about but is it something that's preying on your mind?

MW: Sébastien is a member already. I don't know about Nelson and Timo, I don't think they are. I hope they will get involved, because everyone is benefiting from our work. We are not working ten hours a week, we're working a few hours a week to constantly work with the FIA and Charlie (Whiting, FIA Race Director) and Max (Mosley, FIA President) to make sure that we keep evolving. Winter testing safety has gone absolutely fantastically, in terms of the medical response times, all those sort of things which was a complete disaster three years ago. All the equipment was not useful, so all the guys, irrespective of where they are in their career, are benefiting from the GPDA's efforts and I hope that everyone is going to join and be a bit more unified together. We've got a meeting later on today. It's going well, the GPDA. We're working pretty hard but it's not always straightforward for us. Obviously we are the guys behind the wheel and sometimes our voice is not that powerful. Sometimes it's a bit disappointing but sometimes it's heard, so we try and get the balance right and we try and move the sport forward. But it's mainly safety, mainly safety obviously, but there are a few other little things which pop up which surprise us every now and again but that's not down to who is a member, it's just down to bigger decisions that get put through. We keep moving along slowly. It's OK.

Q: (Mark Danby - Auto Magazine China) Just a comment from Mark and Giancarlo: the tyre compounds from last year, the soft and the hard, how do they compare?

MW: They're actually the same as we used last year, so that's how they compare. GF: Same compounds as last year, and considering the track conditions, they are working quite well apart from the graining problem but here it's an issue in Melbourne park. It's going to be better on Sunday.

Q: (Mark Danby - Auto Magazine China) And the heat will affect that?

GF: Today was really hot. It doesn't look a big problem for the tyres but physically it was very tough today, especially for myself because I am little bit ill. It was tough.

Q: (Mike Doodson) You guys are in the best place to judge your fellow drivers. Can each of you please nominate, who, apart from yourselves, you think will be World Champion at the end of this season?

MW: Kimi.

GF: Probably Kimi.

HK: No comment.

GF: Heikki, say Heikki.

TG: We have to wait and see how the first race goes. You never know who will be on the top but I don't know at the moment. We will see after the first race or two and then we will see which direction it goes. I would say Nelson!

NP: I was going to say Timo.

TG: Kimi.

NP: I was going to say Kimi as well.

SB: Obviously we haven't had the first qualifying yet, so it's very blurry, but if you have to pick, obviously the guy who won the championship last year must be the favourite.

Q: Heikki, team-mate or compatriot?

HK: Lewis.

Q: (Dan Knutson - National Speed Sport News) I would like to ask the three guys who have raced in the Australian Grand Prix before, how sad would you be if this event was dropped as it might be, and what is it about this week, this race, this city, the ambience? What is it that you enjoy about this Grand Prix?

MW: I've answered this question before. Of course I would be disappointed if it left Australia. We started in Adelaide in '85, I think, and we've had a Grand Prix in this country ever since, so it's been a very very good run for us, to have the best drivers and teams to come down here for 22, 23 years or whatever it is, to compete. There are a lot of historic moments and special drivers that have come down here to race and we should really keep that in mind, and embrace it and try and work hard to try and continue to keep the event here, irrespective of whether there's an Australian on the grid or whatever. I think it's still good that we work hard to have it here. It's a long way from Europe and it's a long first flight for everybody to come in terms of logistics; it's a hard first race of the year in terms of spares and parts and stuff to get everything here but I think once everyone gets here and everyone gets settled in, I think the facilities for you guys, for the photographers and drivers and everyone, it's a very very good event. It's a safe city as well, that's always useful, because not all the cities that we go to are massively safe, so we can just go and relax and enjoy it. I think it's one of the best countries - of course, I'm from here - but I hope there's quite a few people that agree that it's one of the best countries to come to, to compete in, and I hope we can continue to keep coming here.

GF: Yeah, I agree with Mark. I really like this country. There is a fantastic atmosphere around the town. I've got great memories of Melbourne, first of all my first race in 1996 and my winning race in 2005, so I've got a great feeling from the circuit, with the atmosphere in the town. There are very good restaurants around, so it would be nice to keep coming here in the future.

HK: For me it's great, coming from Finland, I get a bit of sun tan over here at this time of the year. Otherwise I don't mind where they start the season but this is a great country. I've always loved to come to Australia, so I hope we keep the race in Australia. Whether it's at the start of the season or at the end of the season is no big deal to me.

Q: (Jérome Bourret - L'Equipe) Heikki, your new team had some bad moments last year. What was the atmosphere when you arrived there this winter? Did you feel any pressure, any disappointment in the team?

HK: No, I think everybody in our team wants to put last year behind them, they want to move on, and already in December, when I went to our technical centre for the first time, the past was already gone and when I was discussing with the engineers, everybody was only talking about the future, about this year, about the years to come, so I think it's all finished for us. The team has cleared everything. This is really important for us and I think it's important for Formula One. We've got to move on and this was the atmosphere already back in December and now it's just getting strong and stronger, a good feeling.

Q: (Nick Sheridan - The Age) Mark, it's obviously very hot today and it's going to be very hot over the next couple of days. What kind of effect does that have on you physically and also technically on the car, over three days?

MW: I feel fine physically. I have a good headache today, I think that's from the heat. When your head is very hot, you get a bit of a headache, but apart from that, I feel fine in the car. We have a fantastic water system in the car that's like a kettle, about one hundred degrees, you might as well put a tea bag in it. We tested that today, so that's good, you can burn your tongue. It's really comfortable. Seriously, technically with the car it seems to be going… I haven't spoken to any of the engineers since the last session because I pretty much got turned round to come straight up here, but as far as I'm aware, the car technically is capable of being pretty sound in these temperatures for the race. Obviously we've got hydraulics, brakes and lots of things which we have to keep in check in terms of the maximum temperature they get to but it's testing, it's testing for the car a little bit, and obviously as Giancarlo touched on, it's not twenty degrees, it's forty-odd today or whatever, 39 degrees, so it's pretty extreme in the car but we're ready for it. It's fine.