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Rosberg Tops First Practice in Turkey

The Turkish Grand Prix got under way this very morning, starting with the first official practice session at the Istanbul Otodrom. The winner of today's first outing on the Turkish track is no other than Williams' Nico Rosberg, who managed to top yet another timing sheet this season, some three tens of a second ahead of the competition.

Rosberg completed his quick lap in the dying seconds of the first practice, dethroning McLaren's Lewis Hamilton from the top of the charts. The reigning world champion has led most of this morning's session, despite its “dirty” configuration in the first half-an-hour.

Due to the dusty track in the first part of the practice session, there were few drivers who actually got to break the 1 minute and 33 seconds mark. Hamilton was one of them, as he was later joined by Toyota's Jarno Trulli, Williams' Kazuki Nakajima, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

The British driver managed, however, to regain the top spot within the last half-an-hour of practice, shortly before Massa ran wide at the exit of Turn One and caused significant damage to the AstroTurf lining of the kerbs. The session was suspended for a short period of time, in which the circuit organizers proceeded to repairing the aforementioned section.

After the restart, Hamilton went out to further improve his time to 1:29.263, which seemed like it would be enough for a top morning performance. Rosberg had other plans, though, as he took his low-fueled FW31 for a ride once last time in the closing stages of P1 and broke the 1 minute and 29 seconds mark, stopping the clock at 1:28.952.

Completing the P1 podium was Toyota's Jarno Trulli, followed by Vettel, Massa, Nakajima, Raikkonen, Alonso and Barrichello. Championship leader Jenson Button barely scored the 11th best time of the morning, as Brawn GP used the P1 to get a preliminary data on the new components debuted at Istanbul.

Practice 1 results:

1. Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota)                      1:28.952
2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes)              1:29.263
3. Jarno Trulli (Toyota)                                         1:29.271
4. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault)                1:29.337
5. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)                                      1:29.342
6. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota)                  1:29.371
7. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)                                   1:29.398
8. Fernando Alonso (Renault)                               1:29.422
9. Rubens Barrichello (Brawn-Mercedes)             1:29.525
10. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes)         1:29.590
11. Jenson Button (Brawn-Mercedes)                   1:29.747
12. Adrian Sutil Force (India-Mercedes)                1:29.864
13. Timo Glock (Toyota)                                         1:29.934
14. Nelson Piquet (Renault)                                   1:30.132
15. Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault)                     1:30.176
16. Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber)                          1:30.645
17. Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber)                            1:30.689
18. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Mercedes)     1:30.729
19. Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso-Ferrari)          1:30.838
20. Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari)              1:30.944
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