Webber tops damp opening practice

The championship leader denied Michael Schumacher the chance to top a session for the first time in his comeback season, as Red Bull driver Webber sneaked in a 1m54.589s, 0.119 seconds ahead of the time Schumacher (Mercedes) had just set to briefly lead the way.

Adrian Sutil was third for Force India, ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull, Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari and McLaren's Jenson Button - all of whom had been in first place for a few moments during the crazy closing stages.

One important piece of information that the drivers learned was that the Marina Bay track takes a long time to dry without sunlight hitting it.

Even though no rain had fallen for over an hour before the start of practice, it was only in the final 15 minutes that the track was really suitable for slick tyres - and even then puddles were still visible off-line in many places.

Kamui Kobayashi ended up only 12th for Sauber, but had been one of the pacesetters in the wetter period - as had Virgin's Timo Glock, who sat at the top of the times for 13 minutes in the middle of the session.

Nick Heidfeld was 13th on his return to the Sauber cockpit, though the late changes were so rapid that he had been in the top six with a minute to go.

Lewis Hamilton, testing McLaren's new front wing, had a similar experience - tumbling to 18th purely because he finished his final flying lap sooner than most.

Jerome d'Ambrosio was within 0.2s of team-mate Glock on his first run for Virgin, while Christian Klien settled back in with Hispania in 23rd place, 3.7s down on team-mate Bruno Senna.

Apart from a few trips over chicanes and visits to run-off areas, the session was incident-free - although Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) is set to collect a gearbox change penalty as a new unit will be necessary following a differential problem at Monza.

Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:54.589            10
 2.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:54.708  + 0.119   24
 3.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:54.827  + 0.238   15
 4.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:55.137  + 0.548   12
 5.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:55.160  + 0.571   20
 6.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:55.333  + 0.744   12
 7.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:55.510  + 0.921   15
 8.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:55.523  + 0.934   15
 9.  Kubica         Renault                 1:55.672  + 1.083   11
10.  Petrov         Renault                 1:55.914  + 1.325   20
11.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:56.090  + 1.501   12
12.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:56.339  + 1.750   22
13.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari          1:56.458  + 1.869   18
14.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:56.598  + 2.009    8
15.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:56.603  + 2.014   12
16.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:56.615  + 2.026   17
17.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:56.840  + 2.251   14
18.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:56.884  + 2.295    9
19.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:57.760  + 3.171   22
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:59.034  + 4.445   19
21.  D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth         1:59.275  + 4.686   16
22.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:59.783  + 5.194   23
23.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth            2:03.424  + 8.835   17
24.  Fauzi          Lotus-Cosworth          2:05.694  + 11.105  11
All Timing Unofficial