European P1: Positive start for Williams

With Luca Badoer replacing Filipe Massa at Ferrari and Romain Grosjean replacing Nelson Piquet at Piquet the opening ninety minute Friday practice at the Valencia circuit would get underway. Several drivers would leave the pit lane including Vettel, Badoer, Buemi, Heidfeld, Kubica, and Glock. Grosjean would also come out onto the track followed by both Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg. Drivers would return to their pits after their installation lap, including both Kazuki and Nico. After five minutes only Button was out on the track. Last to come out was Trulli.

Nico said he was not sure if he would make a decision regarding any move to McLaren. He said: "... by no means has anything happened yet." In regard to his 2009 season he added I am quite pleased with how things are going so far this year."

Buemi would see both Torro Rosso's on track as Alguersuari started his first timed lap of the day. Alguersuari set a time of 1m:50.229. Kazuki was out of his car looking very relaxed. Buemi went faster with a 1m:46.458. Alguersuari would improve with a 1m:49.525. Hamilton was out on the track but would pit as Buemi went faster with a 1m:44.998. Alguersuari was down to a 1m:46.844. Grosjean and Trulli were out on the track while Alguersuari improved with a 1m:46.487. Glock was next out as Grosjean set a time of 1m:47.089 with one hour and five minutes remaining. Nico and Kazuki would come out together for their first run of laps this weekend with just under an hour left in the session.

Nico would go quickest with a time of 1m44.468s while Kazuki would move up to fifth on his first lap but Kazuki would improve to be fastest with a 1m:44.084. Nico was second followed by Heidfeld, Raikkonen, and Glock. Raikkonen was now third as Alonso Alonso moved to the top of the standings with a lap of 1m:43.413s. Kazuki was now second, 1m:43.617. Kubica was now second with Kazuki down in third. Sutil was able to improve into third while at the front Webber would go fastest with a 1m:43.243.

There was thirty eight minutes left with Kazuki now fifth, 1m:43.617, and Nico down in ninth, 1m:43.746. Hamilton was now sixth as Vettel had yet to set a time. Button was in tenth. Hamilton would run wide as Button improved with a 1m:43.074 to move to the top of the times. Kazuki was now sixth and Nico tenth. Vettel was able to improve to move up to twelfth as Kazuki returned to the track. Nico was also out with thirty three minutes left in the session. Vettel was able to move ahead of team-mate Webber and into second, 1m:43.088. Kovalainen was now twelfth with a 1m:44.008. He was able to further improve to be in sixth, 1m:43.502.

Kazuki had dropped to eighth and Nico twelfth. Badoer was down in nineteenth, 1m:46.027. Alonso was now fourth and Kubica fifth. Barrichello was now fifth, 1m:43.396, while Nico had pitted. Kovalainen would improve again to be fastest with a time of 1m:42.762. Kazuki was also able to move up the order to now be in fourth, 1m:43.225. Kovalainen's time was set on a fresh set of tyres. Team-mate Hamilton was down in tenth but would improve to be second, 1m:42.996. Twenty minutes remaining and Nico was still in twelfth, 1m:43.746. Button was now third and Barrichello eighth. Hamilton was now fastest with a 1m:42.754.

Barrichello would move to the top of the times with a 1m:42.460, while Kazuki had dropped to sixth. Hamilton was still second while Sutil would move from eleventh to sixth, 1m:43.213. As the final minutes counted down Buemi would spin at Turn eight but was able to get going again while Kovalainen would move back ahead of Hamilton with a 1m:42.636. Alguersuari was now thirteenth having moved from twentieth. So with the end of the session it was Barrichello still fastest from Kovalainen, Hamilton, Button, Vettel, Sutil, Nakajima, Webber, Alonso, and Raikkonen in tenth. Nico was down in fourteenth half a second off the pace of Nakajima.

With the track been quite dirty the times set in the first session really would not give an indication of the pace of each of the teams. But it was still interesting to see Kazuki again ahead of his team-mate.

Pos  Driver       Team			    Time      Laps
 1. Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:42.460  19
 2. Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:42.636  16
 3. Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:42.654  18
 4. Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:43.074  19
 5. Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:43.088  17
 6. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:43.209  13
 7. Nakajima      AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:43.225  25
 8. Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:43.243  19
 9. Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:43.345  18
10. Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:43.384  23
11. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:43.389  30
12. Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:43.419  20
13. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:43.637  30
14. Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:43.746  22
15. Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:44.040  23
16. Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:44.126  17
17. Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:44.356  23
18. Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:44.638  26
19. Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:44.732  28
20. Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:45.840  25