Barrichello sets early pace

Rubens Barrichello

Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello led the way in the opening practice session for this weekend’s European Grand Prix in Valencia.

The Brazilian posted a best time of 1’42.460 seconds which was almost two tenths quicker than his closest challenger, McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen.

Lewis Hamilton, looking for a repeat of his victory in Hungary last month, was third as McLaren continued their recent resurgence following a run of miserable results earlier in the season.Championship leader Jenson Button was some six tenths of a second behind team-mate Barrichello having set the same number of laps, but overall the signs look good for Brawn, who are bidding to overcome the tyre-warming problem that has hindered them at the last three races.

Certainly temperatures should not be a problem in sunny Valencia with Friday morning’s session ending with a track temperature approaching 40 degrees.

However, Button did go on to complain of both understeer and oversteer during the 90-minute session and will be keen to fine-tune the car this afternoon.

Meanwhile Barrichello did endure a late scare when his car got stuck in gear, although the problem was not thought to be serious.

Title-chasing Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were fifth and eighth respectively, while Adrian Sutil served another reminder that his Force India car is now a package to be reckoned with in the midfield as he came home sixth.

Low-key for Badoer

But it proved a low-key session for the returning Luca Badoer, who finished 20th and last, a massive 3.380secs off the pace of Barrichello and almost 2.5secs down on Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who finished in 10th.

It was a slightly better session for Renault new boy Romain Grosjean, whose first competitive outing at the wheel of the R29 ended with a solid 17th place.

Another relative newcomer, Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari, who made his Grand Prix debut last month in Hungary, enjoyed a morale-boosting session, coming home in 13th, two places behind his equally impressive team-mate, Sebastien Buemi.

Kazuki Nakajima put one over Williams team-mate Nico Rosberg, the Japanese driver taking seventh place while Rosberg could manage only 14th.

Elsewhere, Renault’s Fernando Alonso could only manage ninth place in front of his adoring home crowd, while BMW Sauber’s latest round of revisions to the F109 failed to deliver anything better than 12th place for Robert Kubica and 15th for Nick Heidfeld.

But things continue to look gloomy for Toyota, who, just as they did in Monaco, again looked out of sorts on a street circuit, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock finishing 18th and 19th respectively.