Alonso leads wet opening practice in Turkey

After a three-week break, Formula One came back to life this morning at the Istanbul Park.

Practice for the Turkish Grand Prix kicked off in unusual wet conditions. The teams thus had the opportunity to test the intermediate and full wet Pirelli tyres. But it was not all good news as many of the teams have brought updates to this race and were hoping to test them today.

The first half of the session was very quiet as the drivers completed their customary installation laps and sampled the track conditions. Narain Karthikeyan had a difficult start as he had to pull off the track in his out lap. His HRT was retrieved by the marshals and was back in the pits some fifteen minutes later.

Halfway through the session, fourteen drivers had posted a time on the board. Rosberg was leading from Heidfeld, Kobayashi, Alonso and Schumacher.

The track was really wet and aquaplaning was a concern for everyone, especially at Turn 11.

Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel was the biggest casualty of the morning as he crashed his RB7 out of Turn 8. The session was red-flagged with 26 minutes left. The clock kept on ticking as the German’s car was lifted on a flatbed truck and taken back to the pits.

The track was reopened with 18 minutes remaining. Perez and Kobayashi were amongst the first to leave the pits.

The final minutes of the session were pretty animated as several drivers were caught out by the tricky conditions.

Pastor Maldonado had a spin at Turn 11, Paul di Resta span at Turn 9 and Michael Schumacher span at Turn 11. As the chequered flag came out, Chandhok had a spin at Turn 10. Maldonado went off track at Turn 11 and eventually span on the asphalt run-off.

Alonso ended with the fastest time, 1.4s quicker than his nearest rivals. Those were the Mercedes drivers, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Heidfeld was fourth fastest. His Renault teammate was fifth with Kobayashi sixth.

Massa, Ricciardo, Buemi and Hulkenberg completed the top ten. The McLarens were at the bottom of the timesheet with no time on the board for Lewis Hamilton and a sole timed lap completed by Button.