McLaren’s Jenson Button landed the first blow of the weekend as he lead the way in practice for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.

The 2009 Champion put in a lap of 1:26.456 to top the timesheets, while Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg built upon his progress at the Chinese Grand Prix to land second spot behind Button in the afternoon.  Button’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton ended up in third, with Michael Schumacher completing the top four.

Both McLarens will be quietly confident after their performance in practice, although Hamilton was keen to play down their chances ahead of the race.

“Of course you can come from the last race and be very excited and be confident, but I don’t have particularly high hopes. I generally don’t like to expect too much because if it doesn’t work out, you don’t have a big come down. I prefer to arrive cautious.” he commented.

After a three week break and a host of updates across the grid, Friday offered the first glimpse of how much progress each team had made upon the return of F1 to Europe.

However teams were forced to keep their cards close to their chest as the heavens opened for the first session, which caused championship leader Sebastian Vettel spin off at the famous turn 8. Clipping a kerb and ending up in the barrier, the German wrecked his Red Bull meaning he was unable to take part in the afternoon session, although he remained confident ahead of the race.

“It makes it a bit more difficult, no doubt, but I don’t think it will be a problem,” said Vettel. “We know the track quite well from the past years, and in the end it was only one afternoon we had in the dry.”

Fernando Alonso had a mixed day to continue the theme of his season after he lead the way in the morning session only to spin off after a hydraulics problem in the afternoon, and the Spaniard cut a frustrated figure as he eventually finished the day in 11^th spot.

The Scuderia brought with them a series of updates with them, including major changes to both front and rear wings as well as brakes, and it look to have paid dividends as the Spaniard pounded around the rain drenched track.

“It (the spin) makes it a bit more difficult, no doubt, but I don’t think it will be a problem,” said Vettel. “We know the track quite well from the past years, and in the end it was only one afternoon we had in the dry.”  - Sebastian Vettel

However as the circuit began to dry and lap times quickened, the two-time World Champion came undone, and will not harbour much ambition for tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Mercedes have emerged as one of the potential winners of Sunday’s race after both drivers finished inside the top four in both sessions. Rosberg was left frustrated after being forced to ease back following concerns he wouldn’t have enough fuel to finish the race in China meaning he missed out on a podium finish, and with 92 races and counting without a win clocked up for the talented youngster, Turkey may be his chance to break his duck.

“We have made a decent start to the weekend and I am optimistic for tomorrow. We had a productive afternoon and tried a lot of things with the car,” said Rosberg.

“I didn’t have too many problems with the tyres on the long run and I was quite surprised by the grip levels, which were higher than I expected. The wet tyres had a lot of grip this morning too.”

“I’m happy with what we learned and expecting a very interesting time tomorrow and on Sunday.” He added.

His illustrious team-mate will have slightly less cause for optimism however, after he spun no less than three times at turn 11.

Keep checking Formula1Fancast for the latest ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix which takes place on 6th, 7th and 8th May. Make sure you follow us on Twitter too.

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