Practice notes: Friday 1, Melbourne

UPDATE (GMM) David Coulthard completed just five laps in his Red Bull before his Renault engine began smoking in the pitlane.

The Austrian team, meanwhile, only passed its mandatory frontal crash test at the eleventh hour, and it also emerged that Honda had a close call when it passed the front and rear FIA tests for its RA108 just days ago.

The cause of the black flag was a spin and stalled engine for Renault rookie Nelson Piquet, in turn 13.

Force India intends to debut a quick-shift gearbox around the time of the British grand prix in July, it emerged on Friday morning.

03/13/08 (GMM) Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima both reported gearbox problems with their Toyota-powered Williams cars.

Rosberg did not set a lap time at all, and Japanese rookie Nakajima was the slowest in the field.

Renault rookie Nelson Piquet brought out the red flags when his R28 was stranded on the racing line. BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld also broke down.