EL1: Maldonado at ease in Spain

Although the weather was cloudy this morning in Valencia, the drivers took their time to attack the Spanish track since the weather forecast does not predict rain for the weekend. Yesterday was a heatwave, but the wind and overcast weather brought temperatures down to less than 30°C. The teams decided to keep the medium tires for the morning and it was ultimately Pastor Maldonado who did the best, completing the lap in 1'40"890. The Venezuelan is ahead of the drivers Red Bull Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber by less than a tenth. Jenson Button (McLaren), who worked furiously to identify his problems with the MP4-27, finished fourth, one tenth off the best time. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) follows with less than two tenths behind.

The traffic on the track once again had an impact on the times, but the competitors displayed similar performances since no less than four drivers were in the same tenth. Paul di Resta (Force India), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) are all within three tenths of the FW34. Kimi Räikkönen marks a break in the peloton by completing the top ten seven tenths behind his teammate Romain Grosjean. Sauber drivers Kamui Kobayashi et Sergio Perez are the last drivers less than a second behind. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) is ahead of Jules Bianchi (Force India) who was able to complete 21 laps of the track. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham) is ahead of the two drivers Toro Rosso Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo. Charles Pic (Marussia) finished in 21st time while his teammate Timo Glock only completed seven laps of the track.

The second free practice session for the European Grand Prix will take place from 14 p.m. to 15:30 p.m.