Piquet leads opening practice

Ahead of the season showdown tomorrow and Sunday, Piquet stole the early advantage to out-pace Hamilton. But the margin of superiority - 0.165 seconds - shows how evenly matched the pair are.

Hamilton's hopes were boosted by the fact that team-mate Alex Premat was third quickest, demonstrating the strength of the ART package.

Felix Porteiro was an impressive fourth for Campos, ahead of leading Italian Giorgio Pantano.

Adam Carroll's weekend started well too, the British Racing Engineering driver recorded the seventh best time.

Results

Pos  Driver          Team               Time
 1.  N. Piquet       Piquet Sports  1:30.801
 2.  L. Hamilton     ART            1:30.966  + 0.165
 3.  A. Premat       ART            1:31.185  + 0.384
 4.  F. Porteiro     Campos Racing  1:31.321  + 0.520
 5.  M. Ammermuller  Arden          1:31.459  + 0.658
 6.  G. Pantano      FMS            1:31.495  + 0.694
 7.  A. Carroll      Racing Eng.    1:31.659  + 0.858
 8.  F. Perera       DAMS           1:31.690  + 0.889
 9.  E. Viso         iSport         1:31.745  + 0.944
10.  G. Bruni        Trident        1:31.784  + 0.983
11.  A. Valles       Campos Racing  1:31.800  + 0.999
12.  A. Negrao       Piquet Sports  1:31.915  + 1.114
13.  T. Glock        iSport         1:31.981  + 1.180
14.  A. Zuber        Trident        1:32.006  + 1.205
15.  N. Lapierre     Arden          1:32.136  + 1.335
16.  S. Hernandez    Durango        1:32.169  + 1.368
17.  H. Yoshimoto    BCN Comp.      1:32.304  + 1.503
18.  F. Monfardini   DAMS           1:32.337  + 1.536
19.  C. Piccione     DPR            1:32.401  + 1.600
20.  L. Di Grassi    Durango        1:32.502  + 1.701
21.  L. Filippi      BCN Comp.      1:32.571  + 1.770
22.  J. Villa        Racing Eng.    1:32.816  + 2.015
23.  F. Fauzy        Super Nova     1:32.821  + 2.020
24.  V. Petrov       DPR            1:32.848  + 2.047
25.  J. Lopez        Super Nova     1:32.998  + 2.197
26.  J. Tahinci      FMS            1:33.057  + 2.256