Webber goes fastest in first practice

Though it's too soon for most of the questions over 2011 form to be answered, it seems at least that predictions about the competitiveness of the new RB7 were correct as both Webber and world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel spent long periods of the 90 minute session at the top of the times. The pair ended up locking out the first two positions fairly easily.

In the end Webber's 1m26.831s, set on a new set of Pirelli's hard 'prime' tyres on the final lap of the session ensured he fired an early shot to Vettel - the German ending up some 0.327s behind after a late run of his own.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third fastest, more than half a second behind Vettel, ahead of Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.

Rubens Barrichello, now fully recovered from his travel dramas, set an impressive fifth fastest time late in the session for Williams ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton who both showed respectable pace throughout the morning to go sixth and seventh in the revised MP4-26 - which sported a simplified exhaust similar to that of Red Bull and Ferrari.

Michael Schumacher was eighth fastest ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, whose Sauber shed part of its engine cover late in the session. Vitaly Petrov completed the top ten for Renault.

The session was relatively incident free, though several drivers had off-track moments, including Webber and Felipe Massa - who ended the session 11th ahead of Nick Heidfeld.

Only Karun Chandhok hit the wall in the Lotus, as he exited the pits at the start of the session. On cold tyres the Indian's car appeared to snap right and spun him straight into the wall - forcing Heikki Kovalainen to take on development duties for the team.

Virgin's Jerome d'Ambrosio and Timo Glock were some 8s off the pace as Virgin flirts with the prospect of the 107 per cent cut-off in qualifying while neither HRT ventured on track at all.

Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1m26.831s           20
 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1m27.158s  + 0.327  19
 3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1m27.749s  + 0.918  20
 4.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1m28.152s  + 1.321  16
 5.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m28.430s  + 1.599  24
 6.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m28.440s  + 1.609  29
 7.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1m28.483s  + 1.652  26
 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1m28.690s  + 1.859  14
 9.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1m28.725s  + 1.894  13
10.  Petrov         Renault                1m28.765s  + 1.930  15
11.  Massa          Ferrari                1m28.842s  + 2.011  20
12.  Heidfeld       Renault                1m28.928s  + 2.097  14
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m29.314s  + 2.483  19
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m29.328s  + 2.497  21
15.  Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m29.403s  + 2.572  24
16.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m29.468s  + 2.637  23
17.  Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m29.643s  + 2.812  18
18.  Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes   1m31.002s  + 4.171  20
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m32.428s  + 5.597  13
20.  d'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m35.282s  + 8.451  17
21.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1m35.289s  + 8.458  15
22.  Chandhok       Lotus-Renault          no time              1
23.  Liuzzi         HRT-Cosworth           no time
24.  Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           no time

All Timing Unofficial