BARCELONA, April 25: World champion Kimi Raikkonen set the pace as Ferrari dominated Friday’s first free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Finn, championship leader after the opening three long-haul races, marked the first day of the European season with a lap of one minute 20.649 seconds on a sunny morning at the Circuit de Catalunya.

His Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa, who scored his first points of the season when he won the previous race in Bahrain, was second fastest in 1:20.699.

The two red cars were half a second quicker than the best of the rest, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton third in 1:21.192. The leading trio all lapped inside Massa’s 2007 pole time of 1:21.421.

Raikkonen, who leads BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld in the standings by three points, completed 17 laps while Massa spun twice and did just 9.

Poland’s Robert Kubica, on pole in Bahrain for the first time in his Formula One career, was fourth with McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen fifth.

While there were no signs of a shift in the pecking order at the front, former champions Renault looked more competitive after introducing a significant upgrade including a prominent fin to the engine cover. Double world champion Fernando Alonso lapped sixth quickest with Brazilian team mate Nelson Piquet seventh.

The 90 minute first session, at a track familiar to all teams through extensive testing, started quietly with nearly half an hour gone before Williams’s Kazuki Nakajima set the first proper timed lap.

Struggling Super Aguri, with their future in the balance after the collapse of a takeover deal, propped up the timesheets but drivers Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato at least completed some laps.

Japan’s Sato did 14 laps but was 3.6 seconds off the pace while Briton Davidson completed 10 and was in 22nd place, 4.4 seconds slower than Raikkonen.

“It’s been a really difficult time, from the end of last year through to the start of this year,” former Honda test driver Davidson said earlier of the cash-strapped team’s struggle to keep going.

“I’m kind of learning to cope with that because it is difficult, really difficult, it’s a battle, a fight.”

“You can tell yourself you are ready, but without testing here and with limited parts at the start of the year and all that stuff, it really does take a lot out of you,” added the Briton.

“There are a lot of drivers up and down the grid, with much more experience than myself, who would have crumbled by this point.” —Reuters