Hands up anyone who thinks free practice one was a bit of a slow burner?

45 minutes is a long time when nothing much is happening, especially at a track when nothing much happens during the race either. Hopefully the small amount of running accomplished during FP1 means there's plenty more work for teams to get through this afternoon.

When the drivers finally showed their hands we learned that up front Ferrari just had the edge on McLaren, with Massa the only guy into the high 1:20's and Heikki mere fractions ahead of Lewis. Alonso appears to have bounced back from his battering at the hands of Piquet, and Glock's clearly suffering no side effects from his previous accident, both drivers lining up behind the top four.

Vettel was the only man to suffer mechanical problems in the first season, he completed just four laps and was already down on his teammate when he pulled to a stop. Making that deficit up shouldn't be too tricky this afternoon if his car holds together.

ITV appeared to have a severe headache earlier on, so hopefully their problems will be sorted before the final 90 minute session, otherwise it's just live timing and it's like 2007 all over again.

From our point of view, the new live commenting system held up well this morning, so please do check it out if you're around. Do say hello and let us know where you're following all the Friday action.