Teams question worth of Friday practice

World champion Fernando Alonso drove well within his limits to settle for fifth spot while Michael Schumacher was content with sixth place, as the main race drivers took it easy to conserve their engines and tyres for Sunday.

Jenson Button set the fastest time of actual race drivers, but was still nearly four tenths of a second behind his Honda teammate and test driver Anthony Davidson.

All of the teams adopted a similar cautious approach, which they said was brought about the new rule changes.

Under the new regulations, the times from Friday's practice session have no bearing on Saturday's official qualifying although they still have to use the same engines and tyres they plan to use during Sunday's race.

Renault technical chief Pat Symonds said Grand Prix weekends may as well be cut from three days to two because it was pointless having a practice session with teams driving below full speed.

"We should think more laterally and ask ourselves, do we need a Friday session?" Symonds told a news conference.

"I am personally more in favour of having a two-day Grand Prix event and use Friday for testing.

"I think that all too often in Formula One there's too much heritage, too much tradition and the idea that we have to have three days of running. It took us ages to realise we didn't actually need two qualifying sessions, things like this."

Williams' technical director Sam Michael said he wanted the rules changed allowing teams to use their spare engines on Friday so they could drive at maximum speed without risk.

"It could be a free test day with two two-hour sessions or something like that, or you could have a test engine and put your race engine back in on Friday night," Michael said.

Honda chief Nick Fry said he would prefer Friday's session to be scrapped and replaced by a series of public relations exercises allowing fans to mingle with the teams and drivers.

"The teams would actually be there but it would be much more outward facing, giving members of the public and fans in general more access to the teams," Fry said.

"I think we're all in favour of racing more and testing less and doing things which have got wider appeal than what we do at the moment."