Massa tops damp first practice - Canada

The Ferrari driver's laptime of 1:17.553 was good enough to fend off several last-ditch attempts from rivals as the timesheet resembled a fruit machine in the final moments of the 90 minutes.

In the end, it was BMW's Robert Kubica who got closest to the Brazilian's time, eclipsing Heikki Kovalainen and Nick Heidfeld, both of whom had in turn usurped Kimi Raikkonen from second place moments before.

But it was a question of being out on track at the right time as Jenson Button discovered when he dropped from fourth to last in just eight minutes.

The track was declared wet at the start of the session and predictably, only the Force India drivers ventured out initially, Giancarlo Fisichella having the measure of teammate Adrian Sutil when the track was at its most treacherous.

But at halfway, with a dry line emerging, the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock took control of the session. And they stayed in charge when drivers began switching to dry tyres just after the 60-minute mark.

After that, Glock, who stayed top for a considerable amount of time, was a sitting duck, as first Raikkonen, then Nico Rosberg dispensed laptimes under the 1:20 mark.

From then, times cascaded as the timesheets scrolled almost permanently.

In the end, the world champion dropped to fifth ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who waited until the last seven minutes of the session before coming out to play.

Mark Webber set a time good enough for third when he was on track, but eventually dropped to seventh ahead of Red Bull teammate David Coulthard. Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.

Rosberg, having twice topped the order, ended the session 11th.

Unsurprisingly, several drivers ran off the track, including Button, Trulli, Alonso, and Nelsinho Piquet, but no one made contact with the barriers.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:17.553           14
 2.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:17.809 + 0.256   12
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:18.133 + 0.580   10
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:18.182 + 0.629   13
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:18.292 + 0.739   12
 6.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:18.303 + 0.750    8
 7.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:18.712 + 1.159   11
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:18.809 + 1.256   12
 9.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:18.971 + 1.418   24
10.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:19.005 + 1.452   13
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:19.093 + 1.540   20
12.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:19.228 + 1.675   21
13.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:19.346 + 1.793   28
14.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:19.568 + 2.015   31
15.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:19.815 + 2.262   16
16.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:19.888 + 2.335   15
17.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:20.091 + 2.538   23
18.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:20.173 + 2.620   17
19.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:20.541 + 2.988   16
20.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:21.542 + 3.989   17

All timing unofficial