The close-fought opening session was run in perfect weather conditions. Although the first 20 minutes were calm, with no one trying a flying lap, the times came down quickly as the field started some serious running. Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Hamilton and Button changed first position several times, before Robert Kubica took a quick turn in front for Renault.
The Pole seemed to remain the fastest, until Alonso lapped in 1m15.927s to go quickest with 20 minutes to go. Vettel tried to beat the Spaniard’s time in the final minutes, but had to settle with second place, 0.073 seconds behind Alonso. Kubica remained third, with Barcelona winner Mark Webber fourth for Red Bull despite a few traffic issues.
Massa and Michael Schumacher completed the top six, ahead of the two McLarens, Force India's Adrian Sutil and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi. Schumacher’s team mate, Nico Rosberg, spent almost half the session in the pits while work was carried out on his Mercedes, and managed only the 11th time.
Despite fears of chaos with the increased field size and the speed difference between the frontrunners and the new teams, there were few incidents. The only drivers to crash were Hispania's Karun Chandhok, who lost the back end and touched the barriers at Massenet, and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, who bounced over the heightened kerbs of the Swimming Pool chicane. Virgin's Timo Glock was quickest among the new teams, just ahead of the Lotus duo.
1. Alonso Ferrari 1:15.927 31
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:16.000 + 0.073 26
3. Kubica Renault 1:16.016 + 0.089 28
4. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:16.382 + 0.455 24
5. Massa Ferrari 1:16.517 + 0.590 29
6. Schumacher Mercedes 1:16.589 + 0.662 21
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:16.647 + 0.720 32
8. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:16.692 + 0.765 29
9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:16.805 + 0.878 23
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.857 + 0.930 30
11. Rosberg Mercedes 1:17.149 + 1.222 14
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:17.331 + 1.404 28
13. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:17.704 + 1.777 26
14. Petrov Renault 1:17.718 + 1.791 38
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:17.991 + 2.064 36
16. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:18.397 + 2.470 39
17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.434 + 2.507 37
18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.547 + 2.620 32
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:19.527 + 3.600 23
20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:19.606 + 3.679 31
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:19.902 + 3.975 30
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:20.566 + 4.639 18
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:21.688 + 5.761 27
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:21.853 + 5.926 6
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