ISTANBUL, Aug 19: Formula One announced its arrival in Turkey here Friday when the cars hit the track at the Istanbul Park Circuit for the first time ahead of this weekend’s inaugural Turkish Grand Prix.

McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa was the first to venture out onto the new 5.3km track, built in the undulating hills just outside Istanbul, and he improved during the session to end with the fastest time.

Run under cloudy skies and lower than expected temperatures of 29 degrees, the session saw limited running early on, despite the need for teams to work on their set-up for the new circuit.

The teams had undertaken pre-race computer simulations to determine their car set-up before heading to Turkey while many of the drivers had learned the track by playing on their PlayStations.

But by the end, all 25 drivers had completed a timed run and De la Rosa’s lap of 1:27.882 put him 0.571 seconds ahead of McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who posted his time with less than 20 seconds of the session remaining.

Australian Mark Webber finished third fastest for Williams, with a time just 0.883 seconds behind the session leader with Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta, of Brazil, in fourth place.

Briton Jenson Button claimed fifth for BAR-Honda to push the third McLaren of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya down to sixth place with championship leader Fernando Alonso, of Spain, down in seventh.

World champion German Michael Schumacher, keen to continue his improving form with Ferrari here this weekend, finished eighth fastest despite a few troubles during the session.

Japanese driver Takuma Sato, under pressure to start producing results for BAR-Honda, finished ninth fastest and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, in the second Renault, completed the top ten runners.

The venue failed to draw the crowds in on the opening day but the dusty track proved tricky for world champion Michael Schumacher, who made a mistake at turn three then spun across the gravel at turn 12 late in the session.

Australian Mark Webber also took to the gravel in his Williams after running wide at turn 10 and Vitantonio Liuzzi lost control at turn eight, one of the corners tipped by the drivers to be most difficult.

Nick Heidfeld, in the second Williams, went off at turn one as the drivers began to push harder in the closing stages and De la Rosa brought a temporary halt to the session when he stopped on track with apparent mechanical failure.

The drivers went out again with seven minutes to run and Rubens Barrichello became the second Ferrari driver to spin when he made a minor mistake at turn three before the chequered flag to end the session.

The initial runs will have given the drivers and engineers vital data to assess before the second afternoon run, with two further sessions on Saturday to fine-tune their cars before qualifying.—AFP