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Button Tops First Practice at Barcelona

Jenson Button asked his team to give him a competitive package for the Spanish Grand Prix and, from the looks of it, the Brackley based outfit did just that. The championship leader started his European campaign on a high note, as he topped the first official practice session at Circuit de Catalonia on Friday with the best time of 1:21.799.

However, it seems Brawn GP have decided upon a light fuel strategy for the British ace, as teammate Rubens Barrichello was well off pace on his improved BGP 001, finishing the practice session 10th overall (more than a second behind).

Toyota have come to Spain with a redesigned “shark fin” engine cover which, Red Bull Racing style, goes all the way towards the rear wing. However, while the aforementioned feature is “glued” to the rear wing in RBR's case, the Toyota TF109's fin barely touches the wing. The update seems to have worked just fine for the Japanese manufacturer, as Jarno Trulli came in 2nd overall, some 0.355 seconds behind Button.

Third and fourth overall were the two heavily-improved BMW Sauber F1.09s, driven by Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, in that order. The BMW drivers were followed by another duo, Williams' Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg.

Renault's Nelsinho Piquet took on a low fuel mileage strategy for Renault – for the first time this season – and the results were obvious, as the Brazilian finished the session in 7th place (last one within a second from Button). Teammate Fernando Alonso came in a disappointing 17th place before his home crowd.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen finished the first practice in 9th and 11th place respectively, while McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen had to settle for 14th and 19th place.

The only runoff visits of the morning were made by Williams' Rosberg (Turn 13), RBR's Sebastian Vettel (Turn 4) and teammate Mark Webber (at the chicane). Here are the complete results of Practice Session 1:

1. Jenson Button (Brawn-Mercedes)                       1:21.799
2. Jarno Trulli (Toyota)                                             1:22.154
3. Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber)                             1:22.221
4. Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber)                               1:22.658
5. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota)                      1:22.659
6. Nico Rosberg ( Williams-Toyota)                          1:22.667
7. Nelson Piquet (Renault)                                       1:22.753
8. Timo Glock (Toyota)                                              1:22.828
9. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)                                           1:22.855
10. Rubens Barrichello (Brawn-Mercedes)               1:22.859
11. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)                                      1:22.873
12. Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault)                         1:22.934
13. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault)                    1:22.959
14. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes)                  1:23.077
15. Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso-Ferrari)             1:23.088
16. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Mercedes)        1:23.089
17. Fernando Alonso (Renault)                                  1:23.157
18. Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari)                 1:23.185
19. Heikki Kovalainen ( McLaren-Mercedes)              1:23.522
20. Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes)                     1:23.536
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