{image-Giancarlo Fisichella_14032008.jpg news.oneindia.in}Melbourne, Mar 14: Giancarlo Fisichella posted the 12th fastest time in the opening free practice sessions of FIA Formula One World Championship season as Force India began it's campaign on a promising note here today.

Giancarlo time in the first session was just two tenths from the top 10 and the 9th fastest in the afternoon's runs.This is the first time the team has been in the top 10 in practice since Monaco 2007. Adrian Sutil, too, made a promising start and had encouraging runs in the second Force India VJM01 chassis, setting the 17th fastest time in both sessions. Giancarlo was satisfied with his performance and said it was a good start for him.

''It was a good challenge today and it looks quite promising.

We made a big step forward over the winter and, with the new development parts we have here, we are not looking too bad.

''I am happy with the job we are doing so far, both the team and myself are working well together, and although we know we still have a lot of work to do and it is going to be tough, it's a good start,'' he said.

Sutil said he adjusted well after the initial hiccups but was hopeful for a better show tomorrow.

''I think today went quite well. The track was slippery at the beginning, so it was difficult to find a good balance to start with, but after the first run I was happy and then we didn't change so much over the sessions - really just fine-tuned everything.

''We had a small hydraulic problem before lunch but it was soon solved and we could do several longer runs in the second free practice with some quite good lap times.

''At the end it was a little bit unlucky I had some traffic on my fastest lap so I couldn't do a good time with the new tyres, but tomorrow is another day and I think we should be much better than last year,'' Sutil added.

UNI