Fernando Alonso set the pace in practice for the German Grand Prix to underline Ferrari’s resurgence.
Alonso, winner in Britain, was more than 0.3 seconds faster than Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.
McLaren, too, are confident they can rejoin the fight at the front and Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest, while his team-mate Jenson Button was sixth.
Sebastien Buemi survived a late incident when his Toro Rosso lifted into the air and landed in the gravel.
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Formula 1: Fernando Alonso Fastest in First Practice at Nurburgring
Alonso arrived in Germany intent on confirming the step forward in pace that helped him win Ferrari’s first race of 2011 at Silverstone.
He and his team-mate Felipe Massa spent a grey morning at the Nurburgring assessing aerodynamics updates, including an upgrade to the car’s diffuser.
But a run on the soft tyres saw Alonso climb to the top with a best time of one minute 31.894secs. Massa was 0.787secs back in fourth. BBC Sport
Nico Rosberg was just over 0.1s off Button in the improved Mercedes, but also had the two Force India’s of Adrian Sutil and Nico Hulkenberg close on his tail. Michael Schumacher rounded out the top ten by setting a time within two seconds of Alonso, but looked a little bit messy at times and ran into the gravel at the Dunlop Curve on one occasion.
Sebastien Buemi had the biggest accident of the session when he got his Toro Rosso sideways entering turn five and became airborne as the car clipped the outside kerbs. He was lucky not to flip it, but eventually came to a safe standstill in the gravel. Heikki Kovalainen also ran wide at the same corner towards the end of the session but with less dramatic consequences.
On the whole it was a positive session for Lotus with Kovalainen ahead of a Williams and a Sauber and Karun Chandhok easing his way into his one-off weekend as a race driver. His compatriot Narain Karthikeyan was back in action for the first time since he was dropped for Daniel Ricciardo, and appeared to be on a mission, setting a lap over half a second quicker than his HRT team-mate and faster than Chandhok. Tonio Liuzzi will be back in the cockpit for the afternoon session and the rest of the weekend. ESPN.co.uk
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired 1 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:31.9 2 2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 01:32.2 3 1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 01:32.3 4 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:32.7 5 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:33.0 6 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:33.6 7 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 01:33.8 8 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:33.8 9 15 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 01:33.9 10 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 01:33.9 11 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:34.1 12 19 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 01:35.1 13 18 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 01:35.4 14 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 01:35.4 15 9 Nick Heidfeld Renault 01:35.4 16 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 01:36.4 17 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 01:36.4 18 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 01:36.8 19 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 01:36.9 20 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 01:38.5 21 21 Karun Chandhok Lotus-Renault 01:38.8 22 22 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 01:39.3 23 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 01:40.1 24 25 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 01:40.4
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