Mark Webber F1's oldest but one of the fastest

THE biggest hurdle to Mark Webber standing atop the podium in his home grand prix is a man all too familiar - his teammate.

Mark Webber gets a hand out of pit lane

THE biggest hurdle to Mark Webber standing atop the podium in his home grand prix is a man all too familiar - his teammate.

The Australian yesterday zipped around Melbourne's Albert Park circuit in two practice sessions before tomorrow's 58-lap race and showed that, although he is the oldest man in this year's championship, the Red Bull driver is far from being pensioned off.

In a midday session, Webber posted the fifth-fastest time under bright autumn sunshine. In the later session, at about the same time as tomorrow's 60th Australian Grand Prix will be held, the 37-year-old pushed his car harder to clock the day's second-fastest time.

It was an impressive showing, however, Webber and the rest of the field will sleep knowing little seems to have changed.

Sebastian Vettel arrived in Melbourne a three-time world champion and will awake today having posted the fastest time in both practice sessions.

In the first, he edged out Ferrari's Felipe Massa by just .078 sec. His fastest lap in the afternoon session was more than 1sec faster at 1min 25 908s, with Vettel 0.264sec in front of his closest rival and teammate, Webber.

In a sport where metres are eaten up in milliseconds, Vettel's ability to nudge out his rivals underlines his motivation has not waned.

The trick, he said before practice, was to imagine himself level with the field.

"If there is a secret, I think it is not to think about what happened the last three years," Vettel said.

"We are here, we have zero points on our side at the moment, the same as everyone else, so everyone has the same opportunity. Last year, we saw it was very close, so I don't expect it to be any different than last year.

"If anything, it may be a little bit tighter, so it will be crucial to make the most out of every single race."

A feature of last year's championship was its unpredictable nature. The first seven races were won by different drivers and it was not until the final outing of the season that Vettel managed to claim a third world championship when he edged out Fernando Alonso.

Throughout the lead-in to yesterday's practice sessions, drivers were relatively cautious in their optimism.

Alonso was confident his Ferrari was further improved but wary Red Bull may have been holding something in reserve at winter testing.

Alonso and Massa (Ferrari) were competitive in both sessions, with the former finishing the afternoon practice in sixth. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg posted the third-quickest time while his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who showed good speed before sliding off the track late in the second session, finished seventh.

Considering the pairing of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), a former winner for Ferrari in Melbourne, finished fourth and fifth, it appears they are the manufacturers to challenge Red Bull. McLaren appears off the pace - Jenson Button posted 11th-fastest time in the afternoon session.

While Webber showed himself as a contender, his compatriot Daniel Ricciardo is off the speed in his Toro Rosso, having finished 18th and 14th in the two sessions.