Lewis Hamilton set the quickest time of the session, almost a second ahead of his team mate Jenson Button.
Michael Schumacher then led a Mercedes three, four, just one hundredth ahead of Nico Rosberg whilst Sebastian Vettel rounded off the top five.
Red Bull tested their F-duct on Sebastian Vettel’s car, whilst Mark Webber ran without it. The speed difference along the back straight wasn’t massively different suggesting the system might not be working to its full potential.
Karun Chandhok suffered an electrical issue half way through the session, which cut his engine. The Hispania driver managed to coast from turn nine at 33kph to the pits.
Adrian Sutil had a nasty accident exiting turn eight, the result of which was a badly damaged Force India, though Sutil walked away from the accident unaided.
Sakon Yamamoto also got his first chance to test the Hispania car in place of Bruno Senna who will resume practice duties in FP2.
Times for Friday practice one:
| 01 | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:28.653 | 20 |
| 02 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:29.615 | 21 |
| 03 | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:29.750 | 24 |
| 04 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:29.855 | 25 |
| 05 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:29.867 | 30 |
| 06 | R. Kubica | Renault | 1:30.061 | 24 |
| 07 | V. Petrov | Renault | 1:30.065 | 26 |
| 08 | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:30.097 | 20 |
| 09 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:30.294 | 17 |
| 10 | A. Sutil | Force India | 1:30.501 | 20 |
| 11 | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:30.615 | 21 |
| 12 | V. Liuzzi | Force India | 1:30.853 | 22 |
| 13 | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:30.867 | 24 |
| 14 | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:31.011 | 18 |
| 15 | P. de la Rosa | Sauber | 1:31.238 | 23 |
| 16 | N. Hulkenberg | Williams | 1:31.355 | 19 |
| 17 | R. Barrichello | Williams | 1:31.464 | 27 |
| 18 | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 1:31.735 | 24 |
| 19 | H. Kovalainen | Lotus | 1:32.161 | 23 |
| 20 | J. Trulli | Lotus | 1:32.990 | 13 |
| 21 | K. Chandhok | Hispania | 1:34.876 | 21 |
| 22 | L. di Grassi | Virgin | 1:35.137 | 15 |
| 23 | T. Glock | Virgin | 1:35.583 | 26 |
| 24 | S. Yamamoto | Hispania | 1:36.137 | 26 |
All timing unofficial
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