German Grand Prix - FP1 - Fernando Alonso took the challenge for the top slot

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German Grand Prix, Nurburgring Circuit - Friday Practice Session 1 Result

It was Fernando Alonso again who continue to perform well and again beaten the Red Bull fair and square. He manages to put his Ferrari on the top again that looks to challenge Red Bull for the rest of the season.

For the time being, It is looking between Ferrari, Red Bull and Mclaren this time around as all the top 3 teams are focused to win.

With the start of the first session, it was Lewis Hamilton who provided a show for the Mclaren pace who was later stopped by leading driver Sebastian Vettel.

But as the half way into the session, Ferrari come out with the soft quicker set of tyres that provided a sheer pace for that Ferrari and pulled away from Vettel with over half a second lead. As the session came to an end, Fernando Alonso Ferrari was still 3tenths of a second quicker than second man Mark Webber.

Alonso is really looking strong out there. Equally Mark Webber is ready to beat his teammate after he was ordered to maintain gap in the last race and then later assured that same will be asked by Vettel if he was in his place.

Sebastian Vettel only finished third in the first session but still more to come from the World Champion.

Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari finished 4th with Lewis Hamilton on his tail in 5th position.

Jenson Button finished 6th on the time sheet as he continue to test the new upgrades on his car.

German homeboy Nico Rosberg again beat the fellow German teammate Michael Schumacher and was 7th ahead of the two Force Indians.

Force India run on the complete German Team with Adrian Sutil and Nico Hulkenberg who did not disappointed the home crowd in the first free practice session.

7 time world champion had a troubled morning with left rear brake giving away that put Schumacher out of the track many times. At once, Schumacher went off the track onto the gravel and enjoyed the moment by waving to the fans in the stands.

From the top 10 drivers, 5 drivers were German in the first session.

Renault continue to struggle for pace with Vitaly Petrov only 11th fastest followed by the two Toro Rosso.

In the last minute, Sebastien Buemi went onto the gravel into sector 8 and bounces his car before coming to a halt. Luckily he came out uninjured and without any damage to the car.

Williams fail to perform again despite the updates. Rubens Barrichello was only 14th and Maldonado 18th.

Nick Heidfeld was 15th followed by Sauber Sergio Perez.

Heikki Kovalainen was 17th and was also on to the gravel at the same spot where Buemi went out but managed to pull back onto the track.

Kamui Kobayashi claims seem to fall apart as Sauber was seen struggling for pace.

Suddenly Narain Karthikeyan gained some speed with finishing the session in 20th position ahead of both the Virgin cars, teammate Daniel Ricciardo and another Indian Driver Karun Chandhok.

Karun finished 21st after a troublesome first session for him. First his left mirror fall apart from the car and then sidepods were changed as they were overheating. For most of the session he remained 24th only to improve at last.

Rookie Daniel Ricciardo was 22nd for HRT.

HRT finally seemed to find the pace to stay ahead of Virgin.

Both the virgin drivers finished at last.

Timo Glock had a problem with the front wing, which he damaged on turn 13 as he jumped over the Kerb.

Some of the updates that the team brought - Force Indian updates at the back of the car. Williams having new front and rear wing. Ferrari with few updates. Button's Mclaren car with new rear wing.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1min 31.894sec		30
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull - Renault	1min 32.217sec	0.323	24
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull - Renault	1min 32.268sec	0.374	27
4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1min 32.681sec	0.787	23
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mclaren - Mercedes	1min 32.996sec	1.102	18
6	Jenson Button	Mclaren - Mercedes	1min 33.628sec	1.734	22
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1min 33.787sec	1.893	33
8	Adrian Sutil	Force India - Mercedes	1min 33.832sec	1.938	27
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India - Mercedes	1min 33.858sec	1.964	26
10	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1min 33.863sec	1.969	31
11	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1min 34.094sec	2.200	22
12	Jaime Alguersuari	STR - Ferrari	1min 35.115sec	3.221	23
13	Sebastien Buemi	STR - Ferrari	1min 35.371sec	3.477	20
14	Rubens Barrichello	Williams - Cosworth	1min 35.389sec	3.495	24
15	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1min 35.444sec	3.550	22
16	Sergio Perez	Sauber - Ferrari	1min 36.371sec	4.477	22
17	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus - Renault	1min 36.392sec	4.498	29
18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams - Cosworth	1min 36.842sec	4.948	29
19	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber - Ferrari	1min 36.882sec	4.988	27
20	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT - Cosworth	1min 38.504sec	6.610	22
21	Karun Chandhok	Lotus - Renault	1min 38.765sec	6.871	19
22	Daniel Ricciardo	STR - Ferrari	1min 39.279sec	7.385	24
23	Timo Glock	Virgin - Cosworth	1min 40.109sec	8.215	23
24	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin - Cosworth	1min 40.428sec	8.534	22