Pastor Maldonado headed the first practice timesheet in Valencia but the story of the session was Jenson Button's ongoing battle to get back on track.
Better for Jenson, best for Pastor in Valencia
Pastor Maldonado headed the timesheets at the end of Practice One for the European Grand Prix but the story of the session was Jenson Button's ongoing battle to get his season back on track.
After enduring an alarming slump in form which has seen him score a measly two points in the past four races, the McLaren driver has elected to use team-mate Lewis Hamilton's set-up in an attempt to find a reliable starting base from which to reignite his year.
The signs were not promising in the early stages of Friday morning Practice in Valencia, with the 2009 World Champion complaining of locking-up front brakes and suffering a KERS failure. However, a change to his front-suspension midway through the hour-and-a-half session - with the team altering the torsion bar and anti-roll bar on his MP4-27 - appeared to do the trick with the Englishman immediately setting his fastest time of the morning - a 1:40.994 - to finish fourth in the standings.
Yet for Button a but is never far away at present and Jenson would have gone even faster on his next lap but for a major lock-up prompting an early return to the pits. A bittersweet sort of morning, then, for Jenson, but the McLaren driver will no doubt be relieved that a few signs of recovery have belatedly emerged.
The other conclusion to draw from the morning - and one that potentially bodes very well for the race weekend ahead - is that there is once more little to choose in pace between a whole host of teams with just three tenths of a second covered the front nine runners.
After the fastest time changed hands on several occasions in the session's early stages as the top runners waited for the ever-dusty street surface to improve, May's Spanish GP winner Maldonado became the first driver to dip below the 1:41 mark with a lap of 1:40.890 for Williams.
The Red Bulls ultimately moved closest to usurping the South American from top spot but came up less than a tenth of a second short apiece, reigning two-time Valencia winner Sebastian Vettel edging team-mate Mark Webber to take second in RB8s that featured revised rear-ends.
With Button ending up similarly close behind in fourth, Spanish hero Fernando Alonso was again right in the mix for Ferrari as the Maranello marque rolled out its latest F2012 upgrades, including a new-look front wing and bargeboard tweaks.
Force India, fresh from calls from team boss Vijay Mallya to up their game, also made a promising start to proceedings as Paul di Resta beat the similarly Mercedes-engined Michael Schumacher to sixth, the latter having threatened to challenge Maldonado's effort in the closing minutes only for a leery moment in his W03 mid-way through his hot lap to put paid to that.
Meanwhile, Canadian GP winner Lewis Hamilton made a relatively low-key start to his weekend in eighth, although was hardly far off the pace, with the second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg eventually slipping to ninth having earlier led the way.
Lotus have again been strongly tipped to become the latest different winner this season on Sunday but as has now become tradition neither of their black and gold cars made much impression on the timesheet once the times began to tumble, Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean ending up in distant 10th and 11th places respectively.
Their relative low-key start could also have had something to do with the slightly cool and blustery conditions Friday's track running got underway in, although the good news for them is that temperatures are again expected to pick up heading into the weekend.
Click here for the full P1 timesheet
