Fernando Alonso has heightened expectations of a home victory this weekend in Valencia by topping the opening day of practice for the European Grand Prix.
The Ferrari ace set a best time of 1m37.968s on the soft compound Pirelli tyres late in Practice 2 to end the day 0.23s clear of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel, who was just 16th in the morning, was third fastest for Red Bull, while Michael Schumacher added to the roll call of former champions with fourth fastest in his Mercedes.
Felipe Massa and Jenson Button were fifth and sixth fastest respectively, while Mark Webber was seventh after topping Practice 1 on the new medium compound tyre earlier in the day.
Paul di Resta’s weekend took a significant blow in Practice 1, when early Force India test driver Nico Hulkenberg crashed the Scot’s car after completing just seven laps. The car was repaired in time for the afternoon’s session, where di Resta was 14th fastest.
Toro Rosso test driver Daniel Riccardo did a more admirable job for regular driver Sebastien Buemi – setting the 12th fastest time in Practice 1.
See below for the practice results
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Practice 2
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1m37.968s | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m38.195s | 0.227 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1m38.265s | 0.297 |
| 4 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1m38.315s | 0.347 |
| 5 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1m38.443s | 0.475 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m38.483s | 0.515 |
| 7 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1m38.531s | 0.563 |
| 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m38.981s | 1.013 |
| 9 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1m39.040s | 1.072 |
| 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1m39.586s | 1.618 |
| 11 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1m39.626s | 1.658 |
| 12 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1m40.020s | 2.052 |
| 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1m40.301s | 2.333 |
| 14 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1m40.363s | 2.395 |
| 15 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1m40.454s | 2.486 |
| 16 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1m40.531s | 2.563 |
| 17 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1m42.083s | 4.115 |
| 18 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1m42.156s | 4.188 |
| 19 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1m42.239s | 4.271 |
| 20 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1m42.273s | 4.305 |
| 21 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1m42.809s | 4.841 |
| 22 | Tonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1m44.460s | 6.492 |
| 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1m46.906s | 8.938 |
Practice 1
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1m40.403s | |
| 2 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1m41.227s | 0.824 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1m41.239s | 0.836 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m41.510s | 1.107 |
| 5 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1m41.580s | 1.177 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1m41.758s | 1.355 |
| 7 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m41.926s | 1.523 |
| 8 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1m41.955s | 1.552 |
| 9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m42.043s | 1.640 |
| 10 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1m42.216s | 1.813 |
| 11 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1m42.270s | 1.867 |
| 12 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1m42.412s | 2.009 |
| 13 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1m42.704s | 2.301 |
| 14 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1m42.738s | 2.335 |
| 15 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1m42.841s | 2.438 |
| 16 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1m42.941s | 2.538 |
| 17 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1m43.201s | 2.798 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1m43.769s | 3.366 |
| 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1m44.136s | 3.733 |
| 20 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1m45.026s | 4.623 |
| 21 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1m45.221s | 4.818 |
| 22 | Tonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1m45.494s | 5.091 |
| 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1m46.926s | 6.523 |
| 24 | Karun Chandhok | Lotus-Renault |
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