As many had anticipated, Ferrari continued to set the pace in first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday morning, even though all of the teams were running their latest technical packages. The red cars featured their Lotus 80-type slotted nose, while Renault ran with a Red Bull-style engine cover fin and Honda’s noses had grown stylish aerodynamic 'moustaches'.

Kimi Raikkonen was back on form with a lap of 1m 20.649s, but after two spins (one on his first flying lap), Felipe Massa trailed him by only 0.050s with 1m 20.699s.

McLaren were left trailing, with Lewis Hamilton third fastest on 1m 21.192s, 0.543s down. Team mate Heikki Kovalainen was fifth, on 1m 21.758s. It is possible, however, that the silver cars were focusing more on set-up than really quick times. In between them came Robert Kubica, who pushed his BMW Sauber to 1m 21.568s.

The Renaults were sixth and seventh, Fernando Alonso sitting out much of the session and letting Nelson Piquet do all the work, before pipping him 1m 21.933s to 1m 21.936s.

David Coulthard was Red Bull’s leading runner in eighth place, with 1m 22.118s, which put him ahead of Nick Heidfeld on 1m 22.278s for BMW Sauber and Jenson Button’s 1m 22.632s for Honda.

Timo Glock was Toyota’s leading runner on 1m 23.002s in 11th place, a thousandth of a second ahead of similarly-powered Nico Rosberg in the Williams. The latter lapped in 1m 22.838s, but had that disallowed after missing Turns 13 and 14.

They were chased by Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 23.015s), Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 23.141s after a spin in Turn 10 early on), Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 23.153s), Force India team mates Adrian Sutil (1m 23.156s) and Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 23.196s, after a lengthy run down the dirt exiting the last corner on one lap), Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 23.353s) and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 23.952s).

Sebastian Vettel was 20th in the second Toro Rosso, on 1m 24.082s. The two Super Aguris were only cleared to run hours before the session began; Takuma Sato lapped his in 1m 24.278s, leaving Anthony Davidson 22nd and last on 1m 25.068s.