Spain – Free Practice 1: Alonso Back on Top

It is under a sunny sky and with an ambient temperature exceeding 20°C that the first free practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix opens, in which several non-titular drivers will participate: Jules Bianchi (Force India), Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Alexander Rossi (Caterham), and Dani Clos (HRT).

Kobayashi is the first driver to leave the pits for installation laps to check the various systems. However, it takes almost twenty minutes before Timo Glock sets the first timed lap of the day at 1:45.783. But Charles Pic lowers the mark to 1:29.062 while most drivers complete laps without posting times in order to collect data and evaluate any new parts.

But Vergne and Kobayashi soon join the rankings, with the Frenchman leading at 1:27.125 then 1:25.367. However, Kamui Kobayashi quickly surpasses him by going under the 1:25 mark. The Japanese driver then leads ahead of Vergne, Räikkönen, Hülkenberg, Ricciardo, Bottas, Bianchi, Pic, Rossi, Clos, and Glock.

Michael Schumacher is the first Mercedes driver to set a time, climbing to 4th place while Rosberg, in his first lap, settles for 12th place and Webber ends up in 7th position. Midway through the session, Kobayashi leads Bottas, Schumacher, Räikkönen, Vergne, Massa, Webber, Rosberg, Hülkenberg, and Perez, while Button, Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Grosjean, and de la Rosa have not yet completed a timed lap.

While the reigning double world champion sets his first timed lap and temporarily ranks 5th, Pedro de la Rosa loses an aerodynamic element while braking at the first corner. Sebastian Vettel quickly climbs to the top of the timesheet with a 1:24.808, while after a few laps, Romain Grosjean holds the 5th position. Lewis Hamilton falls behind the Frenchman, leaving Fernando Alonso as the only driver without a timed lap. The Spaniard starts his lap but does not complete it and returns to the pits.

The Ferrari driver, however, completes his first timed lap a few minutes later in 1:25.446 before overtaking an HRT in the long Turn 3. Alonso then takes the best time with 1:24.754 and improves by three-tenths with the best time in the third sector.

As he returns to the pits, Fernando Alonso encounters an HRT moving slowly at the entrance of the pitlane. Quietly, the McLaren drivers continue working on developments brought to the MP4-27. No driver seems capable of challenging the provisional hierarchy while they are all on hard tires, with the teams apparently preferring to save the soft tires for the rest of the testing, once the evaluations of the new features are completed.

Under the checkered flag, Fernando Alonso leads Sebastian Vettel, Kamui Kobayashi, Jenson Button, and Valtteri Bottas. Michael Schumacher is sixth, ahead of Romain Grosjean, while Vergne is in eleventh place and Charles Pic is in twenty-second. At McLaren, after the pit stop debacle in Sakhir, they take advantage of the end of the session to conduct pit stop simulations, with the cameras focusing on the rear wheel changer.

Free Practice 1 Rankings of the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix: