Webber sets the pace at Valencia

Mark Webber set the fastest time of the European Grand Prix’s opening practice by a comfortable margin.

The Red Bull driver was eight tenths of a second quicker than his nearest rivals, Renault’s Petrov and Ferrari’s Alonso. Fourth fastest, Lewis Hamilton was a full second off the pace of the Australian. Nick Heidfeld completed the top five for Renault.

Massa and Button were sixth and seventh. Sutil, Rosberg and Alguersuari rounded off the top ten.

Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel kept a very low profile in this session. He set the 16th fastest time, 2.5s down on his teammate.

Nico Hulkenberg crashed early in the session while Karun Chandhok had a gearbox problem which meant he could complete only two laps.

How the session panned out :

The track was very dusty at first and it was not surprising to see very few cars on track. Everyone completed some installation laps and realized the grip level was quite poor.

Driving Paul di Resta’s car in this session, Nico Hulkenberg kicked off the proceedings and swept the track as he piled up some laps. As he was consistently lowering his times, the German lost the rear under braking at Turn 12 and hit the wall. His car sustained damage to its left side.

Alguersuari, Maldonado and Ricciardo then came out for their first run of the weekend. The Williams driver was slightly faster than his rivals and set the early pace.

Minutes before the halfway point, the Ferrari drivers joined the action and went top. Halfway through the session, Alonso was leading from Sutil, Massa, Button and Heidfeld.

There was more action as the session progressed and both Hamilton and Button were soon in the top five. The Red Bulls were yet to come out. Mark Webber was the first to leave the pits and moved up to P6. He soon moved up to P2, very close to Alonso, as his teammate slowly upped the pace.

Vettel was still down in 18th position when Webber improved and went top.

The final part of the session saw few improvements as the teams were keen on saving tyres for the rest of the weekend.

Hamilton moved up to 4th while Vettel moved up to P15.

Timo Glock had a half-spin exiting Turn 5 in the last minute of the session.