World championship protagonists Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button were the pacesetters in the opening practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Brazilian led the way, Barrichello lapping the 5.073-km street circuit in a time of one minute 50.179 seconds to edge his Brawn GP team-mate by 0.177 seconds.
Mark Webber, who lies fourth in the drivers’ standings, was third quickest overall with Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel fifth fastest.
Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest for Renault as both driver and team returned to the scene of their tainted victory last year. SkySports
McLaren’s world champion Lewis Hamilton clocked the seventh fastest time.
Kazuki Nakajima rounded out the top 10 with 1m 51.089s ahead of his Williams partner Nico Rosberg on 1m 51.427s, with Adrian Sutil 12th for Force India on 1m 51.544s ahead of early pacesetter Sebastien Buemi on 1m 51.643s for Toro Rosso, Nick Heidfeld on 1m 51.656s in the second BMW Sauber, and the Toyotas of Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli on 1m 52.083s and 1m 52.135s respectively.
Giancarlo Fisichella took 17th in the second Ferrari on 1m 52.390s, ahead of Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi on 1m 52.905s, Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari on 1m 53.232s and Grosjean on 1m 53.458s. Auto Racing Daily
POS DRIVER ENTRANT TIME 1 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 01:50.2 2 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 01:50.4 3 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 01:50.4 4 Fernando Alonso Renault 01:50.6 5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 01:50.6 6 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 01:50.7 7 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:50.7 8 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 01:50.8 9 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 01:50.9 10 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 01:51.1 11 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 01:51.4 12 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:51.5 13 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:51.6 14 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 01:51.7 15 Timo Glock Toyota 01:52.1 16 Jarno Trulli Toyota 01:52.1 17 Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 01:52.4 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 01:52.9 19 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:53.2 20 Romain Grosjean Renault 01:53.5
