» Brazilian GP: Webber quickest in first practice

Mark Webber has kicked off his Brazilian Grand Prix weekend in positive fashion by rounding out Friday’s first practice session as the quickest driver. With the McLarens having set the pace early on, the Australian moved to the top of the timesheets by the end of the 90-minute session.

Conditions were bright and sunny as the track opened for business on the sport’s sole visit to South America, with track temperatures peaking at 42°C (108°F) under a near cloudless sky.

The session saw a host of test drivers – five, no less – enjoy outings in this session, with GP2 Champion Romain Grosjean piloting Vitaly Petrov’s Renault, Jean-Eric Vergne in Sébastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso, while Nico Hülkenberg, Luiz Razia and Jan Charouz drove for Force India, Toro Rosso, Team Lotus and HRT respectively.

The session was largely incident-free, although Charouz took a trip across the Senna ‘S’ run-off and Kamui Kobayashi had a spin in his Sauber at Bico de Pato. Romain Grosjean’s session came to a premature halt when he stalled his Renault practicing a start at the pit exit, and Fernando Alonso’s engine (admittedly, one well up on mileage) gave up with five minutes of the session to go.

Team Lotus trialled a new rear wing that it hopes will give it better straight-line speed, and Heikki Kovalainen lapped just 2.7 seconds of Webber’s quickest lap of the day.

With the McLaren drivers and Sebastian Vettel trading quickest laps earlier in the session, Webber moved to the top of the order with a 1:13.881, just 0.014 seconds quicker than provisional leader Jenson Button.

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2011 Brazilian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault RB7	1:13.811	26
2.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 0.014	25
3.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 0.150	20
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 0.214	28
5.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 0.696	34
6.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 0.730	26
7.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	+ 1.351	28
8.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 1.367	28
9.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 1.430	31
10.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	+ 1.510	29
11.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 1.657	29
12.	Romain Grosjean	Renault R31	+ 1.736	18
13.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 1.852	27
14.	Bruno Senna	Renault R31	+ 1.921	32
15.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 1.936	31
16.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 2.025	27
17.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 2.168	35
18.	Jean–Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 2.241	33
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Renault T128	+ 2.703	33
20.	Luiz Razia	Lotus Renault T128	+ 3.784	31
21.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 4.329	29
22.	Jérôme d’Ambrosio	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 4.842	29
23.	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 5.141	33
24.	Jan Charouz	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 5.766	37