Mark Webber was fastest in first practice for the Singapore Grand Prix after a session rendered largely academic by damp track conditions.
Rainstorms during the day had left standing water in places, and high humidity slowed the drying process.
Only in the final few minutes did the title contenders begin to test their cars on slick, dry-weather tyres.
Michael Schumacher was second fastest for Mercedes, with Adrian Sutil’s Force India third quickest.
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Formula 1: Singapore Grand Prix - First Practice Results
The skies were clear but the track was decidedly wet, with puddles in some areas, when the drivers came out for their installation laps at the start of practice, 1800 Singapore time.
Unsurprisingly most chose to feel their way around on intermediate tyres, with Christian Klien, standing in for the indisposed Sakon Yamomoto at Hispania, the first to set a time at two minutes 18.621 - more than 20 seconds slower than Webber’s final lap. BBC Sport
Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari was fifth, with reigning champion Jenson Button the quickest of the McLarens as Lewis Hamilton was down in 18th, albeit the 25-year-old appearing to be running with a heavier fuel load.
Behind Button was Vitantonio Liuzzi in his Force India, Sebastien Buemi in his Toro Rosso and the Renaults of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov. The Press Association
Ferrari went back to their former habit of doing mainly race set-up work, so Fernando Alonso’s 11th fastest 1m 56.090s lap need not be regarded as definitive, then came Kobayashi on 1m 56.339s from newly returned Nick Heidfeld on 1m 56.458s in the second BMW Sauber. Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg focused on race set-up work too, for 1m 56.598s, which left him ahead of Heikki Kovalainen who looked very good for Lotus en route to 1m 56.603s. The Williams duo have yet to show their hand, Rubens Barrichello taking 16th with 1m 56.615s from team mate Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 56.840s.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton didn’t do much running and was only 18th on 1m 56.884s, just ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa whose 1m 57.760s was at one stage second fastest before conditions improved.
Behind these two aces there was a gap to Timo Glock’s 1m 59.034s, while Belgian Jerome d’Ambrosio impressed on his first run in an F1 car with 1m 59.275s in the other Virgin. Bruno Senna’s was the faster HRT on 1m 59.783s for HRT, with new team mate Christian Klien taking over from an unwell Sakon Yamamoto to lap in only 2m 03.424s, having failed to get out as the track dried out. At the back, Fairuz Fauzy had another go in the Lotus, taking Jarno Trulli’s car round in 2m 05.694s. Formula 1
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