Massa ends first Pirelli outing on top

Felipe Massa had an impressive run in Pirelli's first official F1 test, beating his qualifying time from weekend's Abu Dhabi GP

The F1 teams were given special dispensation to hold a two-day test at the Yas Marina circuit as they prepare for the swap from Bridgestone to Pirelli tyres for next year's Championship.

The morning session saw newly-crowned F1 World Champ Sebastian Vettel set the pace ahead of Massa, but despite shaving tenths off his time during the afternoon session, the Red Bull racer was eventually pipped to the post by Massa.

The Ferrari driver clocked a 1:40.170 to set the pace on Friday. But perhaps more importantly was the fact that his Pirelli time was quicker than his qualifying time at the same circuit last Saturday on Bridgestone tyres.

Vettel finished the day in second place ahead of McLaren test driver Gary Paffett, who earlier stated that the Pirelli rubber was "not too different from Bridgestone."

Fourth place went to Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, who edged out Robert Kubica, who had a few problems that kept him down to 39 laps throughout the course of the day.

Renault's chief engineer Alan Permane said his first impression of the Pirelli rubber, having used both the medium and soft on Friday, was positve.

"We had our first taste of Pirelli tyres today and were able to run both the medium and soft compounds," said Permane.

"The morning went well and Robert was reasonably happy with the car balance, although we made a few changes during the day to improve it.

"Our initial impression of the tyres has been positive: they were working well with good grip and no warm-up issues.

"Unfortunately we had to stop early because we had a mechanical issue with the car and we preferred to save the tyres for tomorrow when we've rectified the problem."

Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguersuari were next in line.

The only other major incident during the day belonged to Adrian Sutil. The Force India driver's VJM broke down out on track during the morning session, keeping him down to just 20 laps.

However, it also affected Force India test driver Paul di Resta, who spent the bulk of the afternoon session waiting for the team to get back out on track. The Scot completed only 15 laps and finished at the back of the timesheets.

Testing will continue at the Yas Marina circuit on Saturday.

Times
01. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m40.170s 94 laps
02. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1m40.500s 77 laps
03. Gary Paffett McLaren 1m40.874s 94 laps
04. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1m40.950s 83 laps
05. Robert Kubica Renault 1m41.032s 39 laps
06. Rubens Barrichello Williams 1m41.425s 91 laps
07. Paul di Resta Force India 1m41.615s 20 laps
08. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m41.778s 81 laps
09. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1m42.019s 71 laps
10. Adrian Sutil Force India 1m42.859s 20 laps
11. Timo Glock Virgin 1m44.124s 78 laps
12. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 1m44.686s 88 laps
13. Pastor Maldonado Hispania 1m45.728s 83 laps

Source: Planet-F1