Hamilton leads a McLaren one-two
After a predictably slow start in the opening 90-minute practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, it was McLaren Mercedes who showed good form around the 4.655km Circuit de Catalunya. Lewis Hamilton led the way with a best lap of 1:21.880s, nearly four-tenths up on fan-favourite Fernando Alonso.
As is commonplace in practice however, some opted to run the softer medium compound Bridgestone Potenza tyre, while some opted to remain on the harder compound. The final minutes of the session saw Hamilton opt for the softer choice as he went back out and improved on his own best time. Alonso however remained on the harder tyre and was therefore not able to improve.
McLaren however did opt to run the new ‘bridge’ front wing again today and it was apparent that the MP4-22 was gaining time over its rivals in terms of straight line pace indicating that they are able to run less downforce and still achieve a good balance.
Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest in his Ferrari, just a few-hundredths of a second slower than Alonso. Team-mate Felipe Massa was fifth fastest in the sister F2007 while Robert Kubica showed good pace throughout the session in his BMW Sauber and would end up fourth fastest.
Anthony Davidson was sixth fastest in his Super Aguri Honda, undoubtedly a little show-boating from the team, while the Toyota duo of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher set the seventh and eighth best times respectively. For Schumacher, it seems that his recent handling struggles have come to an end.
Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz were ninth and 11th fastest for the Williams Toyota team. Rosberg’s large testing accident left Williams without a lot of data ahead of the start of the weekend, so they will be relatively satisfied with the early pace of the FW29.
Jenson Button was tenth fastest in his Honda ahead of Wurz, while Nick Heidfeld had a low key session in his BMW Sauber and was just 12th fastest ahead of Takuma Sato in the second Super Aguri Honda.
Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella were a distant 14th and 15th for Renault while Red Bull Renault did not show too much pace either with David Coulthard recovering from a spin to set the 16th best time ahead of Mark Webber. Coulthard set the testing pace at the very same circuit just over a week ago with a lap time over two seconds faster than today, so there is plenty more to come from the Milton Keynes-based team.
Adrian Sutil was 19th in his Spyker Ferrari with team-mate Christijan Albers slowest of all behind the Toro Rosso duo of Tonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed.
It is early days in Spain, but as has been the case so far this year, it is McLaren and Ferrari out front.
Formula 1 : News Catalunya - F1-Live.com 