Sebastian Vettel set the early pace for the British Grand Prix weekend, after topping the timesheets for the first free practice session on Friday morning.
Vettel clocked a quickest time of 1:32.280, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and the Renault of Robert Kubica.
Both Hamilton and Jenson Button were running exhaust-blown diffusers on their McLarens for the first time, in the hope of closing the gap to Red Bull through high-speed corners. In front of his home fans, Button set the first timed lap at the new circuit but eventually finished the session eighth fastest. ESPN F1
Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber returning from his big crash in Valencia to post the fourth best time.
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Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, the only driver other than those from McLaren and Red Bull to have won a race this season, was only 13th quickest.
Hamilton is six points clear of Button ahead of a race billed as a battle of the British drivers with McLaren also leading Red Bull in the constructors’ standings.
“We are hoping we are going to put it (the blown diffuser) on and it will be fine, but we know it will take a little bit of getting used to,” Button had said on Thursday.
“So we are going to have a busy couple of days getting it right.” Yahoo! Eurosport
Nico Rosberg had a satisfactory run for Mercedes to go sixth on 1m 33.318s, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 33.377s in the updated Williams, Jenson Button in the second McLaren on 1m 33.519s, and Michael Schumacher on 1m 35.955s in the other Mercedes.
Rubens Barrichello led the next group from 10th place after recording 1m 34.016s for Williams, ahead of Sebastien Buemi on 1m 34.132s for Toro Rosso and Vitaly Petrov in the second Renault on 1m 34.365s. Ferrari have not got off to a great start with Fernando Alonso in 13th place with 1m 34.490s and Felipe Massa 17th on 1m 35.037s.
In between them came Paul di Resta in the other Force India on 1m 34.580s, and Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa in the BMW Saubers, on 1m 34.710s and 1m 34.901s respectively. Formula 1
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