Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets by nearly a second, as McLaren dominated the opening practice session of this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix.
The 2008 world champion was followed by his team-mate Jenson Button with the Mercedes pairing of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg third and fourth respectively.
Meanwhile Red Bull, which are expected to dominate this weekend appeared to be well off the pace. Sebastian Vettel could only manage fifth with his team-mate Mark Webber down in eighth. The Milton Keynes-based team used the session to debut its version of the f-duct system, and will surely have saved its pace for later on this afternoon.
Ferrari was also well down the order, with Fernando Alonso in ninth and Felipe Massa in thirteenth. However, the Scuderia has often focused on longer fuel runs during FP1 and may have continued their program this morning.
The only real accident of the session came with two minutes to go when Adrian Sutil lost control of his Force India at turn 8 and slid backwards into the tyre barriers. Although the German was unhurt, the contact with the barriers inflicting significant damage onto his VJM03.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Hamilton McLaren 1:28.653 20 2. Button McLaren 1:29.615 + 0.962 20 3. Schumacher Mercedes 1:29.750 + 1.097 24 4. Rosberg Mercedes 1:29.855 + 1.202 24 5. Vettel Red Bull 1:29.867 + 1.214 30 6. Kubica Renault 1:30.061 + 1.408 23 7. Petrov Renault 1:30.065 + 1.412 24 8. Webber Red Bull 1:30.097 + 1.444 26 9. Alonso Ferrari 1:30.294 + 1.641 20 10. Sutil Force India 1:30.501 + 1.848 17 11. Kobayashi Sauber 1:30.615 + 1.962 20 12. Liuzzi Force India 1:30.853 + 2.200 21 13. Massa Ferrari 1:30.867 + 2.214 21 14. Buemi Toro Rosso 1:31.011 + 2.358 23 15. de la Rosa Sauber 1:31.238 + 2.585 17 16. Hulkenberg Williams 1:31.355 + 2.702 23 17. Barrichello Williams 1:31.464 + 2.811 19 18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:31.735 + 3.082 27 19. Kovalainen Lotus 1:32.161 + 3.508 24 20. Trulli Lotus 1:32.990 + 4.337 22 21. Chandhok HRT 1:34.876 + 6.223 13 22. di Grassi Virgin 1:35.137 + 6.484 21 23. Glock Virgin 1:35.583 + 6.930 15 24. Yamamoto HRT 1:36.137 + 7.484 26
