The world champion was not expecting to be a front runner this weekend as the McLaren has had a weakness all season on high speed corners, of which there are several here.

Timo Glock was second, with Toyota looking more competitive than they have for a while, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber. Romain Grosjean did a strong job to end the session fifth in the Renault.

Jaime Alguersuari, who set the 9th fastest time, pulled off the track in the closing stages of the session with a suspected engine and Kimi Raikkonen didn’t see the chequered flag either, stopping out on track in the closing stages.

The fastest times were set on the soft tyre, although several drivers reported that their car was a handful to drive on the softer tyre. This was certainly the case for Brawn. However the team’s greatest concern, which is warming up the tyres, did not appear to be such a problem, which bodes well for them this weekend.

The signs are that the Red Bull Technologies aerodynamics department has done a very good job on preparing the wings for this event, which requires a different aero package from recent races. Both the Red Bull cars and the Toro Ross cars look very quick in the all important middle sector.

Luca Badoer who is under pressure to keep his super-sub role at Ferrari ended the session in last place, two seconds slower than Raikkonen, of which one second was sector 2 alone.

The second session was entirely dry after a morning session which was mostly very wet. The forecasts indicate currently that no more rain is due this weekend.