The Briton was fastest in all three sectors, to such an extent, team-mate Nico
Rosberg was over a second down on the timesheet in fourth.
As for fellow title long-shots in Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen
in his Lotus – 53 and 88 points down on Vettel respectively – they were
seventh and fifth in the standings.
Raikkonen was 1.299secs down, just one thousandth of a second clear of
team-mate Romain Grosjean, with Alonso another seven thousandths of a second
further back such was the tight-knit nature of that group.
As for the rest, they were nowhere, with McLaren’s Sergio Perez next up, but a
staggering 2.212secs behind Hamilton, closely followed by Toro Rosso’s
Jean-Eric Vergne and Esteban Gutierrez in his Sauber.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was down in 12th, a second behind Alonso, with Jenson
Button in his McLaren and Force India’s Paul Di Resta 14th and 15th, but
with both just over 2.5secs back.
Marussia’s Max Chilton was 20th, 5.618secs down, leaving Caterham duo Giedo
van der Garde and Charles Pic to bring up the rear, the latter just over
6.5secs adrift.
First practice:
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes 1min 47.055secs
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:47.420
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:47.885
4 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 1:48.239
5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus 1:48.354
6 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 1:48.355
7 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:48.362
8 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:49.267
9 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso 1:49.348
10 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber 1:49.355
11 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:49.481
12 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:49.493
13 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:49.510
14 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:49.608
15 Paul Di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:49.887
16 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:50.092
17 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber 1:50.222
18 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso 1:50.757
19 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:52.359
20 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:52.673
21 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 1:52.920
22 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1:53.647
Edited by Oliver Pickup