Webber on the pace in first Spanish practice

Barcelona: Australian Mark Webber lapped a second faster than world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull one-two in Friday`s first free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Webber, winner at the Circuit de Catalunya last year but still waiting to get on top of the podium this season, set an early pace of one minute 25.142 seconds on a sunny morning at the Barcelona track. Vettel, the championship leader who has won three of the season`s four races so far and started on pole in all of them, was 1.007 slower on the timing screens. Germany`s Nico Rosberg was third fastest for Mercedes ahead of Ferrari`s Fernando Alonso and Mexican Sergio Perez for Sauber. Alonso, the crowd favourite, was making his first appearance since he signed an extension to his contract keeping him at Ferrari until at least 2016. McLaren`s Lewis Hamilton was sixth for McLaren, ahead of seven times world champion Michael Schumacher`s Mercedes. In an uneventful session, Venezuelan rookie Pastor Maldonado provided the only real incident when he went off at turn 12 and was stuck in the gravel after completing just 11 laps.Encouragingly for a team yet to score a point this season, Maldonado still ended up 13th fastest despite missing most of the session.Experienced Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello was 10th, but more than two seconds slower than Webber. Bureau Report