European GP, ​​Free Practice 1: Maldonado leads in front of the Red Bulls, Alonso 5th

Pastor Maldonado is the fastest driver in the first free practice session of the European GP in Valencia, but the Venezuelan from Williams is trailed by less than a tenth of a tenth from Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

The South American lapped the Valencia circuit in 1'40”890, 83 thousandths better than Vettel and 94 thousandths better than Webber. The two from Red Bull proved they can fly, but Williams was not far behind with a super performance, perhaps the result of the weather conditions: in the Spanish city the weather this morning was less hot than usual, with overcast skies and strong wind, which they reduced the temperature to 27° at the beginning and 31° at the end of the tests. In these conditions, no team risked fitting the Soft compound tyres, preferring to focus on the Mediums chosen by Pirelli for this event.

Behind the leading trio, at 104 thousandths was a revived Jenson Button, who benefited from the set-up changes on his McLaren: the Englishman has a gap from Maldonado of 104 thousandths, 71 less than what Fernando Alonso took with the first Ferrari. For the Spaniard, a day of analysis of the new components that the Cavallino brought for this race: for him 26 laps under his belt. Alonso preceded the surprising Paul Di Resta with Force India in sixth place, 215 thousandths off the top; 12 thousandths behind is Michael Schumacher with the Mercedes, then Lewis Hamilton with the second McLaren at 0"268 and finally, behind the winner of the last GP in Canada, Nico Rosberg with the other Mercedes, 292 thousandths behind Maldonado. As you can see, nine drivers less than three tenths faster.

Kimi Raikkonen closes the Top 10 with the Lotus at 730 thousandths, ahead of his teammate Romain Grosjean, the two Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez and then the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, who closes at 1"219: morning too for the Brazilian dedicated to testing new components rather than searching for a valid time. Behind Massa, noteworthy is the 15th time of Jules Bianchi, test driver for the Red Team and currently third driver for Force India, who lapped in place of the starter Nico Hulkenberg. However, no major accident was reported, only a series of long accidents caused by the dirty track involving the two McLaren drivers, Schumacher, Massa and Vettel. The one who risked the most was the German from Mercedes, who grazed the barriers on two occasions. The appointment is now in the afternoon with FP2, which will start at 14pm.

Lorena Bianchi

Here are the FP1 times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m40.890s 22 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m40.973s + 0,083 21 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m40.984s + 0,094 19 4. Jenson Button McLaren- Mercedes 1m40.994s + 0,104 19 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m41.065s + 0,175 26 6. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m41.105s + 0,215 15 7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m41.117s + 0,227 22 8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren- Mercedes 1m41.158s + 0,268 18 9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m41.182s + 0,292 21 10. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m41.620s + 0,730 21 11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m41.784s + 0,894 15 12 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber- Ferrari 1m41.838s + 0,948 19 13. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.861s + 0,971 16 14. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m42.109s + 1,219 20 15. Jules Bianchi Force India-Mercedes 1m42.175s + 1,285 21 16. Valtter the Bottas Williams -Renault 1m42.299s + 1,409 24 17. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m42.442s + 1,552 26 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m42.758s + 1,868 26 19. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m42.777 s + 1,887 28 20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m43.209s + 2,319 19 21. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m44.173s + 3,283 18 22. Pedro de la Rosa Hrt-Cosworth 1m44.996s + 4,106 15 23. Narain Karthikeyan Hrt-Ct-Cosworth 1M45.120 .4,230s + 23 24 1. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 45.338m4,448s + 7 XNUMX