Hamilton tops first Turkey practice

Hamilton moved to the front at the end of the short but frenetic period of mid-session place-changing that followed a very quiet start to the morning.

Although several teams - including Mercedes and Force India in particular - conducted more installation runs than usual as they tested new parts, it was half an hour before anyone tried a flying lap, and a further 15 minutes before the big-hitters got up to speed.

When they did so, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Robert Kubica (Renault) took turns in first place before the McLaren team-mates started a private battle. Hamilton went quickest with a 1m29.672s, but was then pipped by Button's 1m29.623s.

Five minutes later though Hamilton produced a 1m28.653s to go fastest by 0.962 seconds, which is how things remained for the rest of the morning.

Mercedes took third and fourth, with Michael Schumacher just over 0.1s up on Nico Rosberg. Vettel and Kubica completed the top six, ahead of Vitaly Petrov in a strong seventh in the second Renault. Championship leader Mark Webber was eighth for Red Bull, while Fernando Alonso was Ferrari's top runner in ninth.

While many people explored the run-off areas, especially Turn 1, 10th-placed Adrian Sutil had the only accident of the session. He lost control of his Force India at the daunting Turn 8 with two minutes to go and spun backwards into the barriers, causing substantial damage to the car.

Lotus's Heikki Kovalainen was the best among the group of new teams, and was within half a second of Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari's pace.

Bruno Senna handed his Hispania to test driver Sakon Yamamoto for the morning, with the former Super Aguri and Spyker man slowest of all as he settled in.

His team-mate Karun Chandhok lost a lot of time with a throttle problem that left him crawling back to the pits at little more than walking pace, but he made it to the garage and rejoined after repairs.

Pos  Driver         Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:28.653            20
 2.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:29.615  + 0.962   20
 3.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:29.750  + 1.097   24
 4.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:29.855  + 1.202   24
 5.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:29.867  + 1.214   30
 6.  Kubica         Renault                 1:30.061  + 1.408   23
 7.  Petrov         Renault                 1:30.065  + 1.412   24
 8.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:30.097  + 1.444   26
 9.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:30.294  + 1.641   20
10.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:30.501  + 1.848   17
11.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:30.615  + 1.962   20
12.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:30.853  + 2.200   21
13.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:30.867  + 2.214   21
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:31.011  + 2.358   23
15.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:31.238  + 2.585   17
16.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:31.355  + 2.702   23
17.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:31.464  + 2.811   19
18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:31.735  + 3.082   27
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:32.161  + 3.508   24
20.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:32.990  + 4.337   22
21.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth            1:34.876  + 6.223   13
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:35.137  + 6.484   21
23.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:35.583  + 6.930   15
24.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth            1:36.137  + 7.484   26

All Timing Unofficial