Practice 1: Rosberg heads McLaren duo

Nico Rosberg was fastest in the first morning practice session of the European GP weekend in Valencia

Jun.25 (YallaF1.com) Nico Rosberg powered his heavily revised Mercedes MGP W01 to the top of the timing sheets in the opening session of the European Grand Prix weekend at the Valencia street circuit in Spain.

Nico Rosberg during first free practice in Valencia

The German got the better of the McLaren Mercedes duo in the late stages of the session with Canadian Grand Prix winner setting the second best time 0.164 seconds off Rosberg’s best.

Third quickest in the morning session was McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button making it a top three for Mercedes powered drivers.

Robert Kubica (Renault) was fourth fastest ahead of fifth best Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and the Red Bull Racing duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, sixth and seventh respectively.

Eighth on the final timing screens was seven times F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP), racing at the Valencia street circuit for the first time ever, ended a second down on his pace setting teammate. The MGP W01 arrived in Valencia with the blown exhaust system as seen first on the Red Bull RB6.

The Williams pair, fastest of the Cosworth brigade, were next best rounding up the top ten with Rubens Barrichello ninth and rookie Nico Hulkenberg tenth fastest.

The top 10 drivers were covered by 1.288 seconds which sets the scene for what should be another fraughtly competitive Grand Prix weekend.

Out of the top ten in the first session of the weekend were the Force India pair. Vitantonio Liuzzi was 14th fastest with Paul di Resta, doing reserve driver duties as Adrian Sutil looked on, was 16th best.

Hispania Racing were also giving their test driver Christian Klien a chance but the team’s morning was full of problems which saw Bruno Senna with a driveshaft problem while hydraulic gremlins affected Klien’s session.

On the half hour mark a wing mirror detached from Senna’s car smashed on to the track during the session bringing about a red flag as marshals retrieved the shards.

Practice 1 – 25 June 2010