De la Rosa Quickest in Practice 1

Spaniard de la Rosa finished with a time of 1:15.675 to top the session and finish more than one second ahead of Austrian Red Bull Racing test driver Christian Klien, who did 25 laps of the circuit.

Klien was 1.146 seconds back but it was Nick Heidfeld, of Williams, who finished as the fastest race driver in the opening session with a time of 1:17.047 after completing 12 laps.

Michael Schumacher, rejuvenated after his impressive performance in the last race in San Marino, finished fourth fastest, but he was more than half a second behind Heidfeld after completing 14 laps.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who is hoping for improved pace from his modified McLaren this weekend, finished fifth fastest, 2.176 seconds behind his session-leading teammate de la Rosa.

David Coulthard and Vitantonio Liuzzi, the two Red Bull Racing race drivers, finished sixth and eighth fastest, sandwiching seventh-placed Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta.

Zonta had set the early pace in his Toyota with a time of 1:18.103 as the cars headed out onto the Barcelona circuit in temperatures of 21 degrees Celsius.

With 15 minutes gone only four drivers had set a time but with the clock ticking down to the final five minutes 14 of the 22 drivers had completed a timed lap.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished his first session since returning from injury in tenth place of the 17 drivers who finally managed to set a lap in the hour-long session.

Renault drivers Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello, and Toyota driver Jarno Trulli did not set a time in the session.

Zonta and Christijan Albers, of Minardi, stopped out on track at the end of the session and the only driver not to even exit the garage for an exploratory lap was Williams driver Mark Webber.









Pos  Driver        Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:15.675               15
 2.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:16.821  +    1.146   25
 3.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:17.047  +    1.372   12
 4.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:17.574  +    1.899   14
 5.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:17.851  +    2.176    7
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:17.977  +    2.302    7
 7.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:18.103  +    2.428    9
 8.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:18.112  +    2.437   12
 9.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:18.204  +    2.529    6
10.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:18.402  +    2.727    9
11.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:19.328  +    3.653   11
12.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:20.621  +    4.946    8
13.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:20.773  +    5.098   12
14.  Doornbos      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:20.912  +    5.237   23
15.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:21.628  +    5.953   12
16.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:21.635  +    5.960   11
17.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:22.454  +    6.779   14
18.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  No Time                 2
19.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  No Time                 2
20.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  No Time                 2
21.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  No Time                 2
22.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  No Time                 0  

All timing unofficial