Alonso quickest in opening practice

Fernando Alonso made good use on the experimental soft tyres available to the field this morning to set the fastest time of the German GP’s opening practice.

He was 0.3 quicker than both Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel. Massa and Hamilton completed the top five.

Making his race debut with Team Lotus, Karun Chandhok set the 21st fastest lap while his teammate Kovalainen was up in 17th place. Narain Karthikeyan was back at the wheel for HRT, replacing Liuzzi in this session, and was 20th quickest.

How the session unfolded :

The F1 teams were treated with a dry, albeit chilly, first practice session in the Eifel mountains.

The ninety-minute session started with a flurry of installation laps. Jenson Button was the last one to leave the pits and get a first taste of the Nurburgring.

Aerodynamic tests and update evaluations were the order of the day at first and the drivers spent their time coming in and out of the pits to gather data.

Testing a heavily-revised exhaust system, Lotus Renault’s Nick Heidfeld posted the first time on the board twenty minutes into the session. He was soon joined on the leaderboard by Sauber’s Pérez. More drivers followed and Nico Rosberg took over at the front.

The German’s tenure was short-lived as Lewis Hamilton embarked on a first run on the experimental soft rubber and lowered the benchmark.

Both Red Bull drivers joined the action not too long after and slowly made their way up the standings. Five minutes to the midway point, the reigning World Champion moved on top. He was 0.2s faster than Hamilton. Webber was up in 3rd place.

Vettel further improved before bringing his run to an end. Halfway through the session he was leading Hamilton and Webber by 0.4s. Fourth-placed Alonso was a full second behind.

After a short spell in the pits, the top four came back on track for another run. Having switched from the hard to experimental soft tyre, Alonso improved his time and moved up to 2nd, 0.038s behind pacesetter Vettel.

The 2nd attempt was the good one for the Ferrari driver who edged out Vettel by four tenths of a second. As Webber closed within two tenths of a second, the Spaniard further improved and became the first driver to dip under the 1’32 barrier this weekend.

Vettel also improved but remained in third place, 0.2s behind Alonso.

In the final part of the session, Alonso came back out on the soft tyre while Vettel opted for a run on the harder compound. Webber also went the harder way. None of the Red Bull drivers could match Alonso’s benchmark and he ended the session on top.

In the last minute, Sebastien Buemi went off at Turn 5 and his Toro Rosso was left stranded in the gravel trap.