Hulkenberg tops Valencia practice

Hulkenberg's best lap of 1.46.871s - set just moments after Petrov had briefly toppled him from the top of the timesheet - proved just enough to edge him back into P1 and set the scene for an intriguing qualifying session later this afternoon.

The conditions were reminiscent of those experienced at the previous round in Hungary, with track temperatures creeping towards 40C, but the session itself was relatively benign.

Roldan Rodriguez provided a minor spark of excitement and prompted a brief wave of the yellows when he spun at Turn 12, but he was able to continue without any problems.

Davide Valsecchi's first weekend as Romain Grosjean's replacement at Barwa Addax got off to a quiet start, the Italian finishing up 12th - 1.192s behind team-mate Petrov.

It may not have been what he'd hoped for but he was still in better shape than his former team Durango, which failed to complete a flying lap with either of its cars. This sets up an especially difficult qualifying session for GP2 debutant Stefano Coletti.

"It was a gearbox problem - I couldn't change up or down," Coletti told AUTOSPORT. "I came into this weekend never having driven a GP2 car before, and now I have to go into qualifying still not having driven it. It was always going to be a tough weekend, but now it's really tough."

Pos Driver                Team                        Time 
 1. Nico Hulkenberg       ART                    1m46.871s
 2. Vitaly Petrov         Barwa Addax            1m46.880s
 3. Pastor Maldonado      ART                    1m46.974s
 4. Karun Chandhok        Ocean                  1m47.115s
 5. Lucas di Grassi       Racing Engineering     1m47.328s
 6. Luca Filippi          Super Nova             1m47.402s
 7. Alvaro Parente        Ocean                  1m47.516s
 8. Roldan Rodriguez      Piquet                 1m47.730s
 9. Sergio Perez          Arden                  1m47.858s
10. Jerome d'Ambrosio     DAMS                   1m47.937s
11. Javier Villa          Super Nova             1m47.986s
12. Davide Valsecchi      Barwa Addax            1m48.063s
13. Diego Nunes           iSport                 1m48.101s
14. Dani Clos             Racing Engineering     1m48.110s
15. Edoardo Mortara       Arden                  1m48.199s
16. Franck Perera         DPR                    1m48.275s
17. Giedo van der Garde   iSport                 1m48.308s
18. Kamui Kobayashi       DAMS                   1m48.394s
19. Alberto Valerio       Piquet                 1m48.518s
20  Andi Zuber            Coloni                 1m48.613s
21. Michael Herck         DPR                    1m48.925s
22. Diego Rigon           Trident                1m49.052s
23. Luiz Razia            Coloni                 1m49.376s
24. Ricardo Teixeira      Trident                1m51.092s
25  Nelson Panciatici     Durango                  no time
26. Stefano Coletti       Durango                  no time