Ferrari dominate practice 1

The two Ferraris were half a second clear of the rest of the field, with Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen taking third and fifth respectively for McLaren, split by BMW's Robert Kubica.

With the majority of teams having tested extensively at the Barcelona track last week, the session got off to a predictably quiet start, with 26 minutes elapsing before Williams' Kazuki Nakajima became the first man to attempt a flying lap.

The two McLarens came out soon afterwards, with Hamilton setting the early pace with a 1:21.192, six tenths of a second clear of teammate Kovalainen.

But they were swiftly usurped when Ferrari - who uniquely chose to not even bother with an installation lap at the start of the session - emerged with 45 minutes to go.

Raikkonen took first position with his second lap, and then improved to 1:20.649 by the end of his run.

His teammate Massa ultimately reached second place, just 0.050 seconds slower than Raikkonen, despite making a number of mistakes during his first outing.

The Bahrain winner had a spin at the chicane on his first flying lap, and followed Timo Glock (Toyota) into running very wide at Turn 9 on the next lap, before finally setting a representative time at the third attempt. He later had another spin on the exit of Turn 8.

None of the leading drivers improved their times in the second half of the session, with the only change coming when Kubica edging his BMW up to fourth, between the two McLarens.

Home favourite Fernando Alonso pleased his local fans by taking an encouraging sixth for Renault, 1.2 seconds off the pace, and just ahead of teammate Nelson Piquet.

David Coulthard (Red Bull), Nick Heidfeld (BMW) and Jenson Button (Honda) took the final top ten positions.

Having confirmed their participation in the weekend shortly before practice began, Super Aguri ended up at the bottom of the timesheets in 21st and 22nd, but Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson did complete 24 laps between them.

Massa's excursions aside, the only other notable incident was Jarno Trulli's spin at Turn 10 early in the session. The Toyota driver rejoined without drama and ending the morning in 14th.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time               Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:20.649            17
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:20.699  + 0.050    9
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:21.192  + 0.543   20
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:21.568  + 0.919   20
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:21.758  + 1.109   10
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:21.933  + 1.284   18
 7.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:21.936  + 1.287   21
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:22.118  + 1.469   20
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:22.278  + 1.629   24
10.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:22.632  + 1.983   16
11.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:23.002  + 2.353   21
12.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:23.003  + 2.354   25
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:23.015  + 2.366   14
14.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:23.141  + 2.492   15
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:23.153  + 2.504   24
16.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:23.156  + 2.507   22
17.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:23.196  + 2.547   20
18.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:23.353  + 2.704   14
19.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:23.952  + 3.303   15
20.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:24.082  + 3.433   15
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:24.278  + 3.629   14
22.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:25.068  + 4.419   10