Practice One - Webber quickest for Red Bull in Valencia
Mark Webber struck a blow against the hopes of rivals that the revised engine mapping rules might hurt Red Bull this weekend by setting the fastest time in Friday morning's opening practice session by 0.824s.
The Australian lapped his RB7 in 1m 40.403s, comfortably ahead of closest challengers Vitaly Petrov for Renault and Fernando Alonso for Ferrari. The Russian posted 1m 41.227s, the Spaniard 1m 41.239s.
Close behind them came a gaggle comprising McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld in the second Renault, Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari, Jenson Button in the second McLaren and Adrian Sutil in the lead Force €ndia, with respective laps of 1m 41.510s, 1m 41.580s, 1m 41.758s, 1m 41.926s and 1m 41.955s. The chances of any improvement from some of these frontrunners were negated right at the end when Timo Glock spun his Virgin in Turn Five, triggering yellow flags.
Nico Rosberg just failed to join that group with 1m 42.043s in the first Mercedes, chased by Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso on 1m 42.216s, Mercedes' Michael Schumacher on 1m 42.270s and Daniel Ricciardo who was standing in again for Sebastien Buemi in the other Toro Rosso which he took round in 1m 42.412s.
Not too far away were Williams' Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado, on 1m 42.704s and 1m 42.841s, and they were separated by the returned Sergio Perez who lapped his Sauber C30 in 1m 42.738s. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel had a troubled morning which yielded only 1m 42.941s and left the championship leader in 16th place.
Kamui Kobayashi was next up in the second Sauber on 1m 43.201s, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 43.769s. The German was standing in for Paul di Resta this morning and was fastest early on before the dirtiness of the circuit caught him out and he crashed his Force €ndia soon afterwards when he slid into the wall in Turn 12.Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest 'new team' runner for Team Lotus with 1m 44.136s, well ahead of Jerome DAmbrosio who managed 1m 45.026s in his Virgin ahead of team mate Glock on 1m 45.221s. Tonio Liuzzi was close behind on 1m 45.494s in the HRT, with his team mate Narain Karthikeyan next on 1m 46.926s.
Karun Chandhok again stood in at Lotus, for Jarno Trulli, but never recorded a time because of gearbox problems.
Credit: Formula One Administration Ltd (www.formula1.com)
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