f1 1st practice results

Fernando Alonso set the pace in practice for the German Grand Prix to underline Ferrari's resurgence.

Alonso, winner in Britain, was more than 0.3 seconds faster than Red Bull's Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

McLaren, too, are confident they can rejoin the fight at the front and Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest, while his team-mate Jenson Button was sixth.

Sebastien Buemi survived a late incident when his Toro Rosso lifted into the air and landed in the gravel.

Alonso arrived in Germany intent on confirming the step forward in pace that helped him win Ferrari's first race of 2011 at Silverstone.

He and his team-mate Felipe Massa spent a grey morning at the Nurburgring assessing aerodynamics updates, including an upgrade to the car's diffuser.

But a run on the soft tyres saw Alonso climb to the top with a best time of one minute 31.894secs. Massa was 0.787secs back in fourth.

Button emerged from his garage with "flo-viz" paint daubed on his car as McLaren also focused on assessing updates, including a new rear wing.

There were high hopes at McLaren that they would put two disappointing races in Valencia and Silverstone firmly behind them this weekend.

Both Button and Hamilton were optimistic the decision to postpone the ban on the so-called off-throttle blowing of the diffuser to help improve downforce would help them regain lost ground on their rivals.

Hamilton was just over a second shy of Alonso's pace, with Button, who complained on the pit-to-car radio that his car's brakes were locking up, 0.366secs behind his team-mate.

Red Bull do not normally show their hand during first practice but a chance to try out a new version of the soft Pirelli tyres, which will be only available during practice, saw them set fast times.

Webber demonstrated his love of the undulating Nurburgring circuit, which gave him his first grand prix victory in 2009, by finishing 0.323secs behind Alonso with Vettel close behind.

Mercedes are keen to put on a good show on home soil and Nico Rosberg was seventh. Team-mate Michael Schumacher was 10th but he still managed to entertain the fans, waving to the crowd as his car slid into the gravel at the hairpin.

Renault had spoken before the German GP about the need to claw back ground after seeing a successful start to their season slide into mediocrity - and that has led to a radical overhaul of their car this weekend.

"The innovative forward-exiting exhaust has been dropped in favour of a more conventional Red Bull-style layout, with the gases exiting either side of the gearbox and flowing into the diffuser," explained BBC pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz.

"On Friday, only Nick Heidfeld is running the new exhausts, while Vitaly Petrov's car has not been altered.

"Given the difficulty in swapping between the two arrangements - which require a different chassis - that is likely to be the case for the rest of the weekend."

Overheating problems for Heidfeld midway through the session left Renault with work to do although the German finished 15th with Russian team-mate Vitaly Petrov 11th.

It had been a straightforward session at the Nurburgring but Buemi provided some late drama when he lost control and slid sideways across the track and onto the grass, before briefly being lifted into the air and landing in the gravel.

"That sort of incident really takes the wind out of you," added BBC Radio 5 live F1 analyst Anthony Davidson. "He was lucky not to barrel-roll over.

"He just dipped a wheel onto the dirt and it was very rough out there."

Karun Chandhok is racing in place of Jarno Trulli for Team Lotus this weekend and the Indian finished 20th - more than two seconds behind his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.

source: bbc sport