Webber sets pace in first practice

The Australian posted a time of 1m40.597s to outpace Renault's Vitaly Petrov by nearly a full second in a session that was mostly incident-free.

Local hero Fernando Alonso was third fastest in the Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth but already over a second behind the Red Bull of Webber. Nick Heidfeld completed the top five in the second Renault.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel had a low-key start to the weekend, the German finishing down in 16th position, over 2.5 seconds off his team-mate's pace.

Force India's reserve Nico Hulkenberg was the early pace-setter during a session which saw very few drivers complete a timed lap in the first half hour.

The German's day, however, ended early after making contact with the wall at Turn 12 after losing the rear of his car under braking. The left side of Hulkenberg's car was clearly damaged, and he was forced to sit out the rest of the session, having completed just six laps.

Pastor Maldonado and Jaime Alguersuari relegated Hulkenberg down the order right after the half-hour mark, the Williams driver jumping to the top of the times only to be outpaced by the Mercedes of Schumacher 37 minutes into the session.

Massa jumped to the top just a minute later, posting a 1m42.154s, but team-mate Alonso went even quicker and became the first man to lap in the 1m41s moments later.

The Spanish driver stayed as quickest until Webber jumped onto the track to stop the clock at 1m40.597s with 37 minutes left, the Australian improving even further on his 11th lap of the day just a couple of minutes later.

A spin by Timo Glock in the dying moments of the session meant there were no improvements after that as his car was parked in the middle of the track.

Lotus reserve Karun Chandhok endured a disappointing day, the Indian failing to set a time after his car suffered a gearbox problem early on. Chandhok, replacing Jarno Trulli during the session, managed just two installation laps before being asked to return to the pits.

Apart from Hulkenberg's crash, there were just minor incidents during the first 90 minutes, with several drivers going off track without consequence.

Pos  Driver                Team                  Time               Laps
 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m40.403s   	      22
 2.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault               1m41.227s  + 0.824   20
 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m41.239s  + 0.836   22
 4.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.510s  + 1.107   23
 5.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault               1m41.580s  + 1.177   24
 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m41.758s  + 1.355   23
 7.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.926s  + 1.523   14
 8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m41.955s  + 1.552   20
 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m42.043s  + 1.640   22
10.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m42.216s  + 1.813   29
11.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m42.270s  + 1.867   26
12.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m42.412s  + 2.009   27
13.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1m42.704s  + 2.301   23
14.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m42.738s  + 2.335   20
15.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth     1m42.841s  + 2.438   28
16.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m42.941s  + 2.538   21
17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m43.201s  + 2.798   18
18.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m43.769s  + 3.366    7
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault         1m44.136s  + 3.733   17
20.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.026s  + 4.623   17
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.221s  + 4.818   19
22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth          1m45.494s  + 5.091   24
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m46.926s  + 6.523   27
24.  Karun Chandhok        Lotus-Renault         		       2

All Timing Unofficial