Massa tops first practice in Hungary

McLaren duo Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton ended the quiet session in third and fourth places, with Fernando Alonso the best of the rest for Renault.

As usual at the famously dusty and rarely-used Hungaroring, a large amount of the session elapsed before anyone decided to attempt a flying lap, with Honda's Rubens Barrichello the first to set a time after 33 minutes.

Raikkonen then hit the front just after the session's halfway point, lapping in 1:22.032, which kept him on top until Kovalainen moved ahead just after the hour mark with a time a little under one tenth of a second quicker.

Massa was next to lead the way, sneaking ahead of Kovalainen by 0.005 seconds with a quarter of an hour to go, and he proceeded to dominate the final part of the session. Although Hamilton briefly usurped the Ferrari, the McLaren driver was only in front for a few seconds before Massa reclaimed the top spot.

The Brazilian then went faster still later in his run, producing a 1:20.981 lap to move himself half a second clear of the pack.

Teammate Raikkonen improved his time in the final moments and moved to second, but he remained 0.364 seconds slower than Massa.

Kovalainen ended up third, with Hamilton fourth after setting several fastest times in the first sector before losing ground further around the lap.

Behind fifth-placed Alonso, Timo Glock took an eye-catching sixth for Toyota, having been as high as second earlier in the session.

BMW's Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld claimed seventh and ninth, sandwiching Alonso's Renault teammate Nelsinho Piquet, with Jarno Trulli completing the top ten.

The session saw few incidents, aside from Trulli spinning his Toyota just after going momentarily fastest during the early running, and Sebastian Vettel parking his Toro Rosso with a mechanical problem after just four laps, leaving him at the bottom of the timing screens.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:20.981            19
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:21.345  + 0.364   21
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:21.410  + 0.429   17
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:21.535  + 0.554   18
 5.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:21.802  + 0.821   18
 6.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:21.931  + 0.950   22
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:22.267  + 1.286   18
 8.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:22.326  + 1.345   19
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:22.370  + 1.389   22
10.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:22.457  + 1.476   25
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:22.654  + 1.673   23
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:22.700  + 1.719   16
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:22.900  + 1.919   26
14.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:22.917  + 1.936   27
15.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:23.093  + 2.112   26
16.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:23.147  + 2.166   21
17.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:23.274  + 2.293   22
18.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:23.353  + 2.372   25
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:23.459  + 2.478   28
20.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:23.923  + 2.942    4

All Timing Unofficial