UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Button heads field in P1

Championship leader fastest

It looks like business as usual after opening practice for the Spanish Grand Prix at the Catalunya circuit as Jenson Button took the Brawn to top spot with a late run that proved to the be the only lap under the 1:22 mark.

Compared to the fastest time set in winter testing – 1:18.926 by Barrichello in the sister car – Button’s lap of 1:21.799 looked positively pedestrian, indicating that there is much more to come over the weekend.

Second quickest – and no surprise here – was Jarno Trulli, the Italian taking the Toyota around earlier in the session to set a time of 1:22.154, but the next two names on the list provide something of a surprise.

BMW came here with a significantly revised, and KERS-free, car and seeing Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld up in third and fourth after a Friday practice is very surprising indeed. The team has struggled all year so far, and with the times so far off the testing pace it remains to be seen whether this is a genuine improvement – to the tune of the half a second a lap Mario Theissen was forecasting – or simply thanks to the rest not trying very hard.

Next come the two Williams FW31’s, Kazuki Nakajima heading Nico Rosberg as the team do their usual Friday sprints, and they were followed home by Nelson Piquet, the young Brazilian needing another good showing for Renault as his seat becomes ever more precarious.

In stark contrast to the close field we had all weekend at the last race the eighth man here – Timo Glock in the second Toyota – came home just over one second behind the fastest time.

Ferrari did not show much in the way of improvement with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen – the latter in the ‘lightweight’ F60B – lining up ninth and 11th, while things looked equally problematic at McLaren, with Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen in 14th and 19th respectively.

Red Bull had a quiet session, too, as Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel occupy 12th and 13th, while the STR pair of Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Buemi figure in 15th and eighteenth positions. Fernando Alonso is the man out of place, the Renault star in a curious 17th on home ground, and the remaining runners – the Force India’s of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil set 16th and 20th fastest times, the latter some 1.7 seconds off the top spot.

Written: Fri, 08 May 2009 09:44:26