Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg topped a very tight first practice session at the European Grand Prix in Valencia, ahead of the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
All the top teams, with the exception of McLaren, have brought major updates to their cars and the early signs suggest it could turn this weekend’s grand prix into a four-way battle between McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.
Robert Kubica is also in the running with a revised Renault that was quick enough to set the fourth fastest time.
The top four were separated by just over half a second, with a bunch of drivers from fifth to tenth - including both Ferraris, both Red Bulls, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello - a further half second behind.
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Formula 1: European Grand Prix - First Practice Results
But the times at this stage of the weekend are not necessarily indicative of the drivers’ true pace, as the teams with new parts approached the 90 minute session as a test rather than free practice. ESPN F1
Felipe Massa’s Ferrari rounded out the top five, the former the last of the runners in the 1m 41s.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber came in sixth and seventh respectively, the Milton Keynes-based squad experimenting with their version of McLaren’s F-duct. Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello completed the top ten, followed by Nico Hulkenberg and Vitaly Petrov.
Further down the order, the Force India F1 team was seemingly off the pace and Vitantonio Liuzzi and Paul di Resta, who was running in Adrian Sutil’s car, were down in 14th and 16th respectively, with Sebastien Buemi ahead of both in 13th.
Pedro de la Rosa was sandwiched between the two Force India’s in 15th, with his Sauber team-mate, Kamui Kobayashi two spots lower in 17th and then Jaime Alguersuari the last of the established runners in 18th.
Heikki Kovalainen was the best of the new team runners in his Lotus, three tenths off Alguersuari, while Timo Glock and Bruno Senna came in 20th and 21st and ahead of the other Lotus of Jarno Trulli. Yahoo! Eurosport
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