Montoya Given All Clear after Shunt

The Colombian, making his return to F1 action after a lay-off caused by a shoulder injury, appeared to be suffering from minor pain in his left arm after climbing out of the wreckage of his car following a smash into the barriers at the end of the session.

But after returning to the pits and seeing F1's doctors, he has been given the green light to carry on - and his team are confident that they can repair the damage to his MP4-20.

"It's nice to be back at the wheel of the MP4-20," said Montoya. "However the first time I have a shunt whilst driving for this team had to happen today and I'm sorry for the guys who have to repair the damage overnight. I don't know what happened but I just lost it.

"I went to see the FIA Medical Delegate afterwards and he said I was absolutely fine. My shoulder has been coping well and until the last lap everything had been going according to plan. I'm excited about the rest of the weekend and hopefully we will put on a good show."

Montoya's end of session accident was the only blight on an otherwise promising day for McLaren. Pedro de la Rosa topped the times overall, with Kimi Raikkonen setting the fourth quickest time. Montoya was 10th.

De la Rosa said: "I'm quite happy with our performance today but there is definitely more to come. It's always good to be quick and know that the car is still not perfect.

"I'm confident the team will have a strong weekend. It's nice to be able to perform in front of my home crowd and I will continue to work with the team to ensure we get the maximum potential out of Kimi's and Juan Pablo's cars."

Raikkonen added: "A trouble free day for me and a good start to the weekend. The car set-up is still not perfect but we have tomorrow's practice to improve the package even further.  The track keeps changing which provide a real challenge for all the teams but all in all a positive day and I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend."