p1 + P2 Results

Jenson Button set the pace for McLaren in Turkey with team-mate Lewis Hamilton half a second back in third.

Sebastian Vettel sat out second practice after damaging his Red Bull in a crash during a wet morning on track but team-mate Mark Webber was fifth.

Nico Rosberg was second, 0.542secs and two places ahead of Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was hampered by a hydraulics issue and finished 1.613secs off the pace in 11th.

After seeing his winning streak broken at the last race in China by Hamilton, Vettel made an error on his return to competition in Istanbul.

The German, who leads the title chase by 21 points from Hamilton, lost control coming out of the high-speed Turn Eight, which stretches through four apexes, and crashed into the barriers.

"I hit the kerb," Vettel said. "There is nothing I could have done."

Red Bull were unable to repair Vettel's car in time for the afternoon session and the world champion will only have a final hour of practice on Saturday before qualifying begins at 1200 BST.

"Vettel and his engineers must now totally rely on Webber's input and he will give it to him no doubt," said BBC Radio 5 live analyst Maurice Hamilton.

"But Webber is getting a psychological advantage as he is having the car set up to his liking."

Webber, who took pole in Turkey last year and was leading when he was spectacularly taken out by his team-mate, set a best lap of one minute, 27.149secs.

After three long-haul races, Red Bull arrived for the European leg of the season as the team to beat and McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes landed in Turkey with upgraded cars.

But the damp and chilly conditions, with track temperatures a meagre 11C at the start of the day, put paid to any meaningful running in first practice at Istanbul Park.

Hamilton and Button only emerged for installation laps before they hunkered down in the McLaren garage as the team chose to conserve their limited sets of wet and intermediate tyres.

A brighter afternoon, and a quickly drying track, saw both McLaren drivers do a full session's running.

When the team fitted the soft tyres inside the last half an hour, Button set his benchmark time of one minute 26.456 seconds.

Ferrari sit behind champions Red Bull and second-placed McLaren in the constructors' championships after struggling for pace in the opening three races.

The Italian team are trying out a new front and rear wing this weekend and new brake ducts and Fernando Alonso was confident before practice that the car would be "a couple of tenths faster" than at the last race in China.

But it was a mixed day for the double world champion who set the pace on intermediate tyres in the morning before a more testing afternoon.

Alonso spun out of Turn Six and then came to a stop at the entrance to the pit lane because of a hydraulics problem.

The team, who had checked the Spaniard's car for potential hydraulics problems earlier in the session, wasted little time solving the problem and he returned for a spell on soft tyres.

link to vettel crash : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13307236.stm



source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13307427.stm

you can't always tell a lot from free practise, but Vettel will certainly be disappointed to have missed out when the track was drying. McLaren will be happy with their work (though it was strange to see them not doing anything throughout FP1), and Mercedes suggest they will have to be reckoned with here.

Ferrari look like they could struggle again...