Grosjean sets practice pace

The Renault F1 protege just pipped his Toyota equivalent, Kamui Kobayashi, by 0.067 seconds. Grosjean (ART Grand Prix) lapped the track in 1:22.782, this despite a huge slide at the Mobil Kurve that he was lucky to hang on to.

Kobayashi (DAMS) set the early pace, yet was one of the few drivers to improve on his second run, as a light drizzle was falling on an otherwise dry track.

Series leader Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) was third quickest, and produced a rare error when he hit the apex kerb too hard at the Mercedes Arena and spun late on.

Lucas di Grassi (Campos) improved to fourth fastest with a lap late in the session, which pipped the closely matched Andi Zuber (Piquet Sports) and Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS).

Sebastien Buemi (Arden) and Javier Villa (Racing Engineering) were next up, with Villa out of his car before the end of the session with an apparent engine problem. Rounding out the top 10 were iSport twins Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok.

The session was punctuated by spins and crashes, starting straight away with Andy Soucek (Super Nova) spinning at the Mobil Kurve. Seconds later, Mike Conway (Trident) did likewise, but managed to make it all the way into the concrete wall, via smashing the marker board, crushing his front-right suspension.

Arden new-boy Luca Filippi spun at the North Kurve on his first flying lap, but somehow managed to restart after stalling and rejoin the session. He finished it outside the top 10, however.

ART newcomer Sakon Yamamoto spun at Turn 2, while Piquet Sports' Pastor Maldonado looked like an accident waiting to happen all session. After a big moment at Turn 1, a gravelly off at Mobil, he finally put his car in the barriers on the exit of the North Kurve after a massive spin.

Pos  Driver         Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Grosjean       ART Grand Prix           1:22.782           15
 2.  Kobayashi      Dams                     1:22.849 + 0.067   19
 3.  Pantano        Racing Engineering       1:23.136 + 0.354   15
 4.  Di Grassi      Barwa Campos Team        1:23.290 + 0.508   15
 5.  Zuber          Piquet Sports            1:23.354 + 0.572   12
 6.  D'ambrosio     Dams                     1:23.374 + 0.592   17
 7.  Buemi          Trust Team Arden         1:23.514 + 0.732   18
 8.  Villa          Racing Engineering       1:23.676 + 0.894    8
 9.  Senna          iSport International     1:23.705 + 0.923   17
10.  Chandhok       iSport International     1:23.831 + 1.049   16
11.  Soucek         Super Nova Racing        1:23.851 + 1.069   13
12.  Parente        Super Nova Racing        1:23.909 + 1.127   16
13.  Tung           Trident Racing           1:23.967 + 1.185   18
14.  Petrov         Barwa Campos Team        1:24.005 + 1.223   16
15.  Maldonado      Piquet Sports            1:24.012 + 1.230   12
16.  Valles         BCN Competicion          1:24.090 + 1.308   17
17.  Filippi        Trust Team Arden         1:24.339 + 1.557   14
18.  Rodriguez      FMS International        1:24.397 + 1.615   18
19.  Asmer          FMS International        1:24.582 + 1.800    8
20.  Valerio        Durango                  1:24.637 + 1.855   17
21.  Iaconelli      BCN Competicion          1:24.810 + 2.028   16
22.  Nunes          DPR                      1:24.820 + 2.038   18
23.  Valsecchi      Durango                  1:24.915 + 2.133   17
24.  Herck          DPR                      1:25.936 + 3.154   16
25.  Yamamoto       ART Grand Prix           1:27.243 + 4.461   11
26.  Conway         Trident Racing           No time             2