Free Practice 1: Barrichello Takes the Lead, Grosjean 17th

Rubens Barrichello with his BGP001 (Brawn GP team) set the fastest time in the first free practice session during the European Grand Prix in Valencia. He is followed by the two McLaren drivers and his teammate Jenson Button. The British team is looking to regain an edge over the competition, mainly Red Bull.

The Brazilian clocked a time of 1:42.460 with 15 minutes remaining in the testing session. He then tried to improve his time in the final moments, but his car no longer had a clear track to make a good run.

Under pressure, Heikki Kovalainen could do nothing to clinch the top spot and finished 176 thousandths behind Barrichello. His McLaren MP4/24 is equipped with a new front wing. His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, trails him by 0.018 seconds. Jenson Button was the fastest for a large part of this session but fell to fourth place, 6 tenths slower than his teammate.

Sebastian Vettel is the best Red Bull driver by securing the fifth position. He swapped positions with Button during the session. Adrian Sutil for Force India is impressive to finish in sixth position. The improved VJM02 shows great potential. As a reminder, the team brought new updates to Valencia.

Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) with 25 laps on the counter takes seventh place ahead of Mark Webber in the Red Bull. Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen enter the top 10 respectively for Renault and Ferrari.

There were no serious incidents during these 90 minutes of practice, the first of the weekend, but several drivers went over the curbs or had impressive slides on a still dusty track. The circuit organization made changes to increase on-track safety.

Jaime Alguersuari is the fastest of the three rookies with a nice 13th position for Toro Rosso. With his teammate, Sébastien Buemi finishing 11th, they completed the same number of laps, 30 to be exact. The Swiss driver put on a show with a spin to his credit. Between the two of them is Robert Kubica in the BMW. Nico Rosberg (Williams), Nick Heidfeld (BMW), and Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India) are in 14th, 15th, and 16th positions respectively.

Romain Grosjean, the new Renault driver, is 17th, just over a second behind Fernando Alonso. The Frenchman is one of the slowest drivers, much like Luca Badoer for Ferrari. The Italian driver was the slowest, 3.380 seconds off Barrichello’s pace and more than two seconds behind his teammate Räikkönen.

Finally, in front of him, are the two Toyota drivers with Jarno Trulli ahead of Timo Glock.

Results of Free Practice 1 – European GP – Friday, August 21, 2009: