Fernando Alonso picked up where he left off two weeks ago at Silverstone by going straight to the top of the timesheets during first practice for the German Grand Prix.
On Thursday the Ferrari driver said his car would still be on the pace this weekend, and on the basis of the first practice session that appears to be the case. He was 0.323s faster than Red Bull’s Mark Webber who was 0.051s up on team-mate Sebastian Vettel. However, Friday mornings are never the best guide for the upcoming weekend’s performances and this morning’s results were complicated by Pirelli offering two sets of soft compound development tyres for each driver.
All the fastest times were set on the development tyre, which was being tested with 2012 in mind and appeared to offer stable performance across its lifespan rather than just a single flying lap. As a result Webber and Vettel set their fastest laps on their second outing on the soft rubber and Alonso set his fastest time on his final lap. ESPN.co.uk
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Formula 1: German Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Ferrari completed a solid start to the weekend thanks to Felipe Massa’s fourth fastest time, the Brazilian outpacing the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, who was fifth fastest but over a second off Alonso’s pace.
Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil, Nico Hulkenberg and Michael Schumacher completed the top 10.
Renault’s Nick Heidfeld was the first driver to complete a timed lap after 20 minutes, the German trying out the new rear-facing exhaust system introduced by the team this weekend.
Local hero Nico Rosberg jumped to the top of the times moments later with a lap of 1m35.11s, before he was demoted by Hamilton, who lapped in the 1m34s only to improve by over 1.4 seconds on his following lap. A few minutes later, the Briton moved into the 1m32s, leaving Rosberg two seconds off his pace. Yahoo! Eurosport UK
The Renaults were not very competitive with Vitaly Petrov 11th quickest with a best lap of 1m 34.094s and Nick Heidfeld lagging behind in 15th with a 1m 35.444s. Toro Rosso seemed a lot more competitive than of late with Jaime Alguersuari 12th with a 1m 35.115s and Sebastien Buemi 13th with a 1m 35.371s, although the Swiss driver ended his morning bouncing over a gravel trap after a last-minute off, while trying for a better time.
The Williams team were struggling again with Rubens Barrichello 14th overall, with a fastest lap of 1m 35.389s, but this was rather better than Sauber, who could not get heat into the tyres, which left Sergio Perez 16th with a best time of 1m 36.371s and Kamui Kobayashi 19th with a 1m 36.882s.
Heikki Kovalainen was in the fight with the 17th best time in his Lotus, recording a 1m 36.392s, which was good enough to put him in front of 18th-placed Pastor Maldonado, in the second Williams, who stopped the clocks at 1m 36.842s.
India’s Narain Karthikeyan was back in action with HRT (standing in for Tonio Liuzzi for the morning session), setting the 20th fastest time with a 1m 38.504s, ahead of fellow countryman Karun Chandhok, who was 21st with a lap of 1m 38.765s. Formula 1
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