Alonso fastest in Spain GP Free Practice 1

Ferrari's first competitive outing with their revised F2012 got off to a perfect start in Barcelona on Friday as Fernando Alonso set the pace.

It was a slow start to first practice as there was no rush to learn the corners, the undulations or how their cars will perform due to the fact that the drivers are all very familiar with the Circuit de Catalunya given the amount of time spent testing in Spain.

This meant Jean-Eric Vergne had his moment in the limelight, heading the timesheets before losing out to Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.

Despite big-name rivals venturing out after the first half an hour, the Japanese driver retained the P1 slot as the likes of Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber all fell short of the mark.

In fact, the biggest threat to Kobayashi's P1 time came from Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas, who replaced Bruno Senna for FP1, and put in some impressive lap times.

Leaving it until just over 30 minutes remained in the session, the big boys finally headed out for some serious running.

Vettel went quickest with a 1:24.808, Lewis Hamilton took sixth place and Fernando Alonso, in his updated F2012, teased the Spanish crowd as he headed out only to do his seventh installation-style lap without setting a time.

His ninth, though, saw the Spaniard set a lap time which was six-tenths down and only good enough for 11th place. However, the Ferrari driver's 11th lap put him P1 with a 1:24.754.

Alonso went quicker still two laps later, putting some distance between himself and Vettel while Kobayashi was still holding onto third place ahead of Button and Bottas.

The Spaniard held onto the P1 slot with his 1:24.430, taking the P1 slot on his B-spec car's debut, 0.378s up on Vettel.


Planet F1

Pos  Driver                Team                   Time               Laps  1.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m24.430             20  2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m24.808s  + 0.378   18  3.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m24.912s  + 0.482   28  4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m24.996s  + 0.566   24  5.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m25.120s  + 0.690   24  6.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m25.187s  + 0.757   15  7.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m25.217s  + 0.787   16  8.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m25.252s  + 0.822   20  9.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m25.285s  + 0.855   29 10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m25.339s  + 0.909   24 11.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m25.367s  + 0.937   22 12.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m25.433s  + 1.003   21 13.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m25.539s  + 1.109   23 14.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m25.607s  + 1.177   20 15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m25.918s  + 1.488   19 16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m26.226s  + 1.796   24 17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m26.297s  + 1.867   18 18.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m26.630s  + 2.200   21 19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m27.475s  + 3.045   20 20.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m28.267s  + 3.837   21 21.  Alexander Rossi       Caterham-Renault       1m28.448s  + 4.018   25 22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m28.633s  + 4.203   22 23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1m29.107s  + 4.677   19 24.  Dani Clos             HRT-Cosworth           1m31.618s  + 7.188   19  All Timing Unofficial

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