Ferrari came out half a second faster than McLaren at the first free practise session of the Spanish Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen maintained the team’s dominating form by just outpacing his team mate Massa. Raikkonen’s time was set 40 minutes into the session and although Massa came very close to beating the Finn, he had to settle for second position.

He had two spins along the way though. During a long run simulation the Brazilian first lost the back end of his F2008 at the chicane towards the end of the lap and then ran wide at turn nine. The MP4-23 of Lewis Hamilton was quicker than the Ferrari’s at the start of the session but by the end he couldn’t get within 0.5s of his rivals.

In fact, it was team mate Kovalainen who had been the keeping the Brit honest throughout the opening stages as they traded best times until Ferrari came out to spoil their fun. Kubica finished in fourth after completing his best time in the closing sessions of the practise session. He was way off the pace of the Ferrari’s though, finishing 0.9s off their time.

This last gasp attempt by the Pole demoted Kovalainen to fifth in his McLaren. Renault looked to have made a great improvement with their R28 with Alonso and Piquet finishing sixth and seventh respectively. David Coulthard had the best performing Red Bull this morning to come in eighth with BMW’s Nick Heidfeld and Honda’s Jenson Button rounding off the top ten. 

Toyota and Williams could not manage to break in to the top ten. Both Toyota’s left the track during the session. Force India showed that they are beginning to improve their competitiveness by finishing in front of the Toro Rosso’s. Given the uncertainty of the team’s future it was unsurprising that both Super Aguri’s trailed behind, taking the last two slots on the time sheets.   

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