Melbourne rain, Kovalainen cold and Barrichello flight

Rain is in the air as Melbourne gets set to host the 2011 formula one opener.

There are showers on the radar in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon, and they may return on Thursday and Friday when the Albert Park paddock really bursts into life.

Saturday and Sunday - the days of crucial qualifying and the Australian grand prix - should be sunny and dry but with temperatures only in the low 20s.

"It’s pretty clear we’ll have some mixed weather this weekend, so we might not get a real understanding of who’s where," said Australian Mark Webber on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Heikki Kovalainen was relieved on Tuesday, after earlier suffering from a sore throat.

"(The) flu seems to have been scared off by training and vitamins, so fingers crossed," he wrote on Twitter.

And Rubens Barrichello is enduring a stressful start to the beginning of his eighteenth full season in F1, after Argentina suspended flights due to a airport communication system problem.

But he said from Buenos Aires late on Monday night: "It looks like the plane will leave tomorrow at 1pm. It was a long day but I am happy that everything will be ok."