Kimi remains cautious

It is the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix that the Finn has made an appearance at the top of the timesheets on the opening day of the weekend as the team struggle to find any speed from the MP4-19.

On Mercedes home turf, though, Kimi managed to squeeze some extra tenths out of his machine but he admitted that it was Saturday's qualifying that counted.

"A good start to the weekend but there is still a long time to go. As always we will do our best and hopefully continue to make some progress," he said. "We completed our planned programme and experienced no problems, which is encouraging. The car seems to behave well here, but it's tomorrow that really matters and we will see where we end up."

Team-mate David Coulthard had a few seconds' glory at the top of the timesheets in the second session before being knocked down to fourth.

"Obviously it doesn't look too bad for us today despite only running a limited number of laps," he said. "We completed our tyre evaluation programme and found a reasonable basic set up, so our pace seems quite encouraging"