Alonso leads practice 1

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton took third, seven tenths behind his teammate, with Robert Kubica's substitute Sebastian Vettel in fourth.

Hamilton had been the first of the major contenders to set a fast laptime, but his 1:13.143 was soon beaten by Alonso, albeit by only 0.016 seconds at first.

Alonso then repeatedly improved his time to establish a six tenths of a second margin over the competition, before Heidfeld put soft tyres on and closed to within 0.047 seconds of the top spot.

Then in the final minutes, Alonso tried the softs for himself and re-asserted his authority, ending the morning 0.466 seconds clear of Heidfeld, and 0.703 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who got alarmingly close to the wall through the banked final corner as he probed the limits of the circuit on his first visit.

Vettel was half a second slower than Heidfeld in fourth.

Ferrari again appear to be slightly off the leaders' pace, with Kimi Raikkonen a second away from Alonso in fifth, and Felipe Massa only seventh.

They were split by Nico Rosberg, who leapt up the order to sixth with a late flying lap.

David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Mark Webber completed the top ten.

The session saw relatively little incident, with Adrian Sutil's spin into the gravel in the last minute the most notable error. Both Toyotas, Heidfeld and Raikkonen also made brief trips off the road without damage or significant delay.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:11.925            16
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:12.391  + 0.466   24
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:12.628  + 0.703   21
 4.  Vettel        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:12.869  + 0.944   33
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:12.966  + 1.041   21
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:13.020  + 1.095   24
 7.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:13.040  + 1.115   22
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:13.159  + 1.234   22
 9.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:13.597  + 1.672   23
10.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:13.682  + 1.757   26
11.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:13.777  + 1.852   32
12.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:13.786  + 1.861   27
13.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:13.819  + 1.894   27
14.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:13.907  + 1.982   28
15.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:13.990  + 2.065   24
16.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:14.000  + 2.075   19
17.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:14.037  + 2.112   20
18.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:14.052  + 2.127   23
19.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:14.189  + 2.264   18
20.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:14.632  + 2.707   10
21.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:14.636  + 2.711   28
22.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:14.810  + 2.885   27