Rosberg quickest in first Europe practice

The German had been contesting the top spot with Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton for much of the morning on the dusty Spanish street track.

With 15 minutes to go, Rosberg was asked to do a back to back test running a lap without activating the F-duct and then one with the system - which neatly demonstrated the device's effectiveness as he jumped to first on with a 1m41.175s lap using the F-duct.

Hamilton remained second for McLaren, 0.164 seconds down on Rosberg and 0.044s ahead of his team-mate Button.

Robert Kubica put Renault fourth, half a second off the pace, with fifth-placed Felipe Massa (Ferrari) a second down on Rosberg but just fractionally faster than the Red Bulls, Michael Schumacher's Mercedes, Fernando Alonso in the second Ferrari, and Williams' Rubens Barrichello.

Ferrari spent the session evaluating its new exhaust system, with Alonso carrying out a heat soak test in the pitlane exit and his car running with temperature-sensitive stickers.

Tyre graining was an issue, and many drivers visited the run-off areas, but no one got as far as the barriers.

There was a brief red flag early on, though, when Bruno Senna's Hispania shed a mirror. The detached part was run over and smashed by Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso, prompting a brief stoppage to sweep the debris away.

Hispania's mileage was later limited as driveshaft and gearbox problems kept both Senna and test driver Christian Klien - replacing Karun Chandhok this morning - in the pits. Klien was one of two test drivers in action, with Paul di Resta out in Adrian Sutil's Force India. The Scot took 16th, two places and one tenth of a second behind team-mate Tonio Liuzzi.


Pos  Driver         Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:41.175            16
 2.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:41.339  + 0.164   19
 3.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:41.383  + 0.208   21
 4.  Kubica         Renault                 1:41.715  + 0.540   20
 5.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:42.182  + 1.007   21
 6.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:42.216  + 1.041   24
 7.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:42.275  + 1.100   17
 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:42.312  + 1.137   18
 9.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:42.421  + 1.246   22
10.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:42.463  + 1.288   21
11.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:42.707  + 1.532   23
12.  Petrov         Renault                 1:42.962  + 1.787   17
13.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:43.310  + 2.135   23
14.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:43.380  + 2.205   19
15.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:43.397  + 2.222   21
16.  di Resta       Force India-Mercedes    1:43.437  + 2.262   18
17.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:43.729  + 2.554   21
18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:44.183  + 3.008   21
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:44.491  + 3.316   21
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:45.653  + 4.478   23
21.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:47.123  + 5.948   17
22.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:47.285  + 6.110   18
23.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth            1:47.343  + 6.168   14
24.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:47.356  + 6.181   24

All Timing Unofficial