Vettel leads Webber in opening practice

More than half of the session had passed by the time the front runners ventured out for some meaningful track time, and once they were going Vettel and Webber led quite comfortably.

Vettel, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton were the only drivers to break into the 1m12s, though the latter two were half a second away from the German's pace.

Ferrari was well off the pace, so the McLarens of Hamilton and Jenson Button filled third and fourth spots. Hamilton spent much of the session sampling different front wing set-ups, while Button pledged to gamble at any opportunity due to his slim title chances and had his rear wing changed during the 90 minutes.

Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg were once again the best of the rest in fifth and sixth, with the session's early pace setters Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher seventh and eighth. The Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Kamui Kobayashi rounded out the top 10, though the Japanese finished the session in the wall after spinning on his last lap.

Behind Nico Hulkenberg's Williams, championship leader Fernando Alonso was only 12th with Ferrari apparently electing to take it easy this early in the weekend.

Alonso parked his car out on track in the final minute of the session due to concerns over the engine, though the team had already stated that it will change the engine in his car before this afternoon's FP2.

Home hero Felipe Massa was one of the first front runners to go out, but he scurried back to the pits to try to chase understeer out of his car and never really got up to speed after that - ending up behind his team-mate in 14th.

Vitaly Petrov's best time left him 15th but, like Kobayashi, his practice ended in the wall at the Ferradura right hander after spinning off.

Jarno Trulli's Lotus was the quickest of the new teams, quarter of a second ahead of Timo Glock. Jerome D'Ambrosio was 22nd in the second Virgin, while Christian Klien - in at HRT for Sakon Yamamoto - was half a second faster than Bruno Senna.

Pos  Driver         Team                     Time               Laps
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault         1:12.328            23
 2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault         1:12.810  + 0.482   27
 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes         1:12.845  + 0.517   24
 4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes         1:13.267  + 0.939   23
 5.  Kubica         Renault                  1:13.370  + 1.042   23
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes                 1:13.516  + 1.188   25
 7.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth        1:13.546  + 1.218   25
 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes                 1:13.643  + 1.315   24
 9.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes     1:13.918  + 1.590   25
10.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari           1:14.000  + 1.672   22
11.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari           1:14.004  + 1.676   23
12.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth        1:14.155  + 1.827   28
13.  Alonso         Ferrari                  1:14.246  + 1.918   20
14.  Massa          Ferrari                  1:14.267  + 1.939   25
15.  Petrov         Renault                  1:14.370  + 2.042   23
16.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes     1:14.487  + 2.159   25
17.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1:14.618  + 2.290   29
18.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1:14.734  + 2.406   28
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth           1:15.603  + 3.275   24
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth          1:15.860  + 3.532   20
21.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth           1:16.057  + 3.729   25
22.  d'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth          1:16.707  + 4.379   27
23.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth             1:16.839  + 4.511   18
24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth             1:17.360  + 5.032   29

All Timing Unofficial