2013 SPAIN GP: FRIDAY RESULTS

The first free practice session on Friday for the Spanish Grand Prix started in wet weather, meaning that teams were forced to concentrate their running in the final moments of FP1 and a dry FP2. At the end of FP2, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel topped the time sheets with a lap of 1m22.808s on the medium tyre, which has been nominated along with the hard for Barcelona. This was significantly quicker than last year’s equivalent FP2 time (1m23.399s) set on the soft tyre.

A new version of the P Zero Orange hard tyre was introduced this weekend with a wider working temperature window. In addition, teams were also able to benefit from an extra set of experimental hard tyres per car for Friday only – as Pirelli is allowed to supply in accordance with the regulations. The drivers ran mostly on the Cinturato Green intermediate tyres in the morning, using the experimental hard tyres in the final 15 minutes of the session, with the Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa going first and second fastest.

The cars continued to run on both the experimental and nominated hard tyres during FP2. Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne was the first driver to switch to the mediums half an hour into the second session, as the teams concentrated on race simulations in order to establish an optimal tyre strategy.

 P.     Driver             Team           Time       Gap   Laps
 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull       1:22.808           34
 2. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari        1:22.825  + 0.017  35
 3. Mark Webber           Red Bull       1:22.891  + 0.083  36
 4. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus          1:23.030  + 0.222  32
 5. Felipe Massa          Ferrari        1:23.110  + 0.302  37
 6. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes AMG   1:23.140  + 0.332  35
 7. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes AMG   1:23.398  + 0.590  45
 8. Adrian Sutil          Force India    1:23.840  + 1.032  37
 9. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso     1:24.058  + 1.250  31
10. Paul di Resta         Force India    1:24.104  + 1.296  25
11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso     1:24.175  + 1.367  32
12. Jenson Button         McLaren        1:24.306  + 1.498  35
13. Sergio Perez          McLaren        1:24.854  + 2.046  31
14. Valtteri Bottas       Williams       1:24.888  + 2.080  38
15. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber         1:25.167  + 2.359  38
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams       1:25.321  + 2.513  32
17. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber         1:25.441  + 2.633  37
18. Romain Grosjean       Lotus          1:25.851  + 3.043  35
19. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham       1:25.963  + 3.155  30
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia       1:26.078  + 3.270  31
21. Charles Pic           Caterham       1:26.930  + 4.122  35
22. Max Chilton           Marussia       1:26.970  + 4.162  25

Fernando Alonso grabbed the fastest time in a Ferrari one-two as wet weather frustrated the Formula 1 field's attempts to get an early understanding of the Spanish Grand Prix upgrade packages in opening practice at Barcelona.

 P.     Driver             Team           Time       Gap   Laps
 1. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari        1:25.252           20
 2. Felipe Massa          Ferrari        1:25.455  + 0.203  20
 3. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso     1:25.667  + 0.415  25
 4. Romain Grosjean       Lotus          1:26.042  + 0.790  21
 5. Adrian Sutil          Force India    1:26.212  + 0.960  24
 6. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes AMG   1:26.374  + 1.122  19
 7. Valtteri Bottas       Williams       1:26.456  + 1.204  20
 8. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus          1:26.614  + 1.362  21
 9. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes AMG   1:26.621  + 1.369  21
10. Paul di Resta         Force India    1:26.755  + 1.503  16
11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso     1:26.940  + 1.688  26
12. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber         1:27.061  + 1.809  24
13. Sergio Perez          McLaren        1:27.135  + 1.883   6
14. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber         1:27.250  + 1.998  26
15. Pastor Maldonado      Williams       1:27.576  + 2.324  24
16. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham       1:28.373  + 3.121  14
17. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham       1:28.600  + 3.348  19
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia       1:28.887  + 3.635  14
19. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull       1:29.457  + 4.205  11
20. Mark Webber           Red Bull       1:29.473  + 4.221  21
21. Rodolfo Gonzalez      Marussia       1:30.314  + 5.062  13
22. Jenson Button         McLaren                  no time   6