Dry conditions finally at Jerez

Heavy overnight rain gave way to sunny skies today at Jerez enabling the 11 teams to put in some much-needed dry running.

Jenson Button currently tops the timesheets for McLaren Mercedes with a best lap of 1:20.394s, roughly a second off the best times recorded last week as the circuit starts to rubber up. Mark Webber is second fastest behind the wheel of the Red Bull Renault, despite a mechanical problem in the early afternoon.

Fernando Alonso is third ahead of Robert Kubica in the Renault and Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso. Michael Schumacher is sixth fastest for Mercedes ahead of Adrian Sutil.

Williams meanwhile has opted to complete a race simulation today as well pit stop practice, an essential component of the sport this year now that the pit stop times are no longer regulated by fuel flow. Nico Hulkenberg is eighth ahead of Kamui Kobayashi who has only completed a handful of laps in the Sauber Ferrari.

Lucas di Grassi took over the Virgin Cosworth challenger today, but lost time with a minor off this morning. Fortunately for the new team, there was no damage and the Brazilian was soon back on track with the tenth fastest time albeit some 11 seconds off the ultimate pace.

Lotus racing were able to get on track first thing as scheduled as a new front wing was flown in overnight. However, a sensor failure in the clutch mechanism stopped Heikki Kovalainen’s T127 on his first timed lap, bringing out the first red flag of the day.

The Finn has yet to set a time as the team hope to rejoin the action shortly.

A full report to follow at the close of play.