Practice 1 Report - De la Rosa leads the way

McLaren remained on top of the Formula 1 pile in the first practice session in Istanbul with test driver Pedro de la Rosa setting the fastest time of the session, well clear of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen, who knows that he must score as many points as possible in Turkey to maintain a World Championship challenge against Fernando Alonso.

Mark Webber was third fastest for Williams, which was a surprise given the recent speed of the Williams-BMW combination but it is likely that Webber was running a smaller than usual fuel load as his team mate Nick Heidfeld was back in 14th, which is a more realistic position. Ricardo Zonta was fourth quickest in his Toyota ahead of Jenson Button's BAR-Honda Juan Pablo Montoya's McLaren, Alonso's Renault and Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. Takuma Sato was ninth for BAR and Giancarlo Fisichella 10th for Renault.

Rubens Barrichello had a spin in his Ferrari and was only 17th fastest while otherwise the order was much as normal.