The drivers were naturally cautious during the opening laps, with the track
noticeably slippy, and with the first timed lap set by Sauber’s Kamui
Kobayashi of 1min 55 sec.
Eventually McLaren’s Lewis
Hamilton took over proceedings and led the way for a lengthy period
until the final 10 minutes when Vettel broke the back of the track.
The 25-year-old Red Bull star, who is 10 points clear of Alonso, finished
1.418sec clear of Hamilton, the biggest margin at the end of any practice
session this season.
It is not known what fuel level Vettel was running, but even so it was still
an impressive margin, with Alonso third on the timesheet, 2.212 seconds
adrift in his Ferrari.
The top three teams occupied the top six places, with Jenson Button in his
McLaren, Red
Bull’s Mark Webber and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa fourth, fifth and
sixth respectively, all approximately 2.5 seconds down.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was the best of the rest ahead of Kobayashi and
team-mate Sergio Perez in eighth and 10th, with Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes
splitting the Sauber duo.
Paul di Resta, apparently struggling badly with the balance of his Force India
car, was 11th quickest, 3.658 seconds behind Vettel, and 0.8 seconds down on
team-mate Hulkenberg.
The Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen, who gave the team their first win this season
last time out in Abu Dhabi, and Romain Grosjean were a lowly 14th and 15th
but with the prospect of more to come.
At the bottom, and clearly out of his depth on this occasion, was HRT reserve
Ma Qing Hua, the Chinese finishing 10.434 seconds off the pace, and 1.7
seconds behind team-mate Pedro de la Rosa.
The top 10 from first practice
1 Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull 1:38.125
2 Lewis Hamilton – McLaren +1.418
3 Fernando Alonso – Ferrari +2.212
4 Jenson Button – McLaren +2.403
5 Mark Webber – Red Bull +2.525
6 Felipe Massa – Ferrari +2.841
7 Nico Hulkenberg – Force India+2.898
8 Kamui Kobayashi – Sauber +2.911
9 Nico Rosberg – Mercedes +3.034
10 Sergio Perez – Sauber +3.348