Valencia: Barrichello tops opening practice
Brawn GP's Ruben Barrichello topped opening practice for Sunday's European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain. Barrichello's lap of 1m42.460s was just fast enough to beat McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen who turned the 2nd fastest lap at 1m42.636s. Kovalainen's McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton was 3rd. Brawn's Jenson Button and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top-5.
Renault's Romain Grosjean was 17th – just over a second slower than his Renault teammate Fernando Alonso. The Frenchman could not feel worse than F1 returnee Luca Badoer.
The Italian Ferrari driver was slowest, 3.380s off the pace of Barrichello and more than two seconds behind his Ferrari teammate Raikkonen.
Results
|
Pos |
Driver | Team | Time | Behind | Laps |
| 1. | Barrichello | Brawn GP-Mercedes | 1:42.460 | +0.000 | 19 |
| 2. | Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:42.636 | +0.176 | 16 |
| 3. | Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:42.654 | +0.194 | 18 |
| 4. | Button | Brawn GP-Mercedes | 1:43.074 | +0.614 | 19 |
| 5. | Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1:43.088 | +0.628 | 17 |
| 6. | Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:43.209 | +0.749 | 13 |
| 7. | Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:43.225 | +0.765 | 25 |
| 8. | Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:43.243 | +0.783 | 19 |
| 9. | Alonso | Renault | 1:43.345 | +0.885 | 18 |
| 10. | Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:43.384 | +0.924 | 23 |
| 11. | Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:43.389 | +0.929 | 30 |
| 12. | Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:43.419 | +0.959 | 20 |
| 13. | Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:43.637 | +1.177 | 30 |
| 14. | Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:43.746 | +1.286 | 22 |
| 15. | Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:44.040 | +1.580 | 23 |
| 16. | Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 1:44.126 | +1.666 | 17 |
| 17. | Grosjean | Renault | 1:44.356 | +1.896 | 23 |
| 18. | Trulli | Toyota | 1:44.638 | +2.178 | 26 |
| 19. | Glock | Toyota | 1:44.732 | +2.272 | 28 |
| 20. | Badoer | Ferrari | 1:45.840 | +3.380 | 25 |