Maldonado tops first practice at Valencia
Williams driver Pastor Maldonado topped the times in the first practice session ahead of the European GP to be held at Valencia. In a session without mishaps or problems, he went quicker than the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
Jenson Button went fourth quickest, certainly a good start of the race weekend for him after several troubled Grand Prix. McLaren already said earlier this week that they believed they had found a solution to Button's setup woes.
Behind him is Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari that once again features several upgrades, including another change to the exhaust layout.
The session was marked by many wheel lockups in the hard braking zones on what is a low grip surface at the moment. That situation is of course expected to change throughout the weekend.
Results
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:40.890 | - | 22 |
| 2 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:40.973 | 0.083 | 21 |
| 3 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:40.984 | 0.094 | 19 |
| 4 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:40.994 | 0.104 | 19 |
| 5 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:41.065 | 0.175 | 26 |
| 6 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:41.105 | 0.215 | 15 |
| 7 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:41.117 | 0.227 | 22 |
| 8 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:41.158 | 0.268 | 18 |
| 9 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:41.182 | 0.292 | 21 |
| 10 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:41.620 | 0.730 | 22 |
| 11 | 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:41.784 | 0.894 | 15 |
| 12 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:41.838 | 0.948 | 19 |
| 13 | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:41.861 | 0.971 | 16 |
| 14 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:42.109 | 1.219 | 20 |
| 15 | 12 | Jules Bianchi | Force India-Mercedes | 1:42.175 | 1.285 | 21 |
| 16 | 19 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1:42.299 | 1.409 | 24 |
| 17 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:42.442 | 1.552 | 26 |
| 18 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Str-Ferrari | 1:42.758 | 1.868 | 27 |
| 19 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Str-Ferrari | 1:42.777 | 1.887 | 28 |
| 20 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:43.209 | 2.319 | 19 |
| 21 | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:44.173 | 3.283 | 19 |
| 22 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Hrt-Cosworth | 1:44.996 | 4.106 | 15 |
| 23 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | Hrt-Cosworth | 1:45.120 | 4.230 | 23 |
| 24 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:45.338 | 4.448 | 7 |
