Well after I went and hyped up this first day of testing at Valencia it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the days running was mostly ruined by the weather. Mark only managed to complete a handful of laps in the wet morning session, and as the day wore on and the track dried out he ended up in the gravel trap making the final times of not much use to us (Mark was second last, but ahead of a Ferrari so nothing can be made of the results).

It was an interesting day, with Fernando Alonso punting off Luca Badoer for no apparant reason. Alonso has been known for using his car to make a point with other drivers in practice and testing sessions, though footage of this incident suggests the double world champion simply made a mistake in the tricky conditions. He wasn’t the only one, with many cars seen trundling through the run off areas. The only other points of interest was BMW blowing an engine and Webber running an all white helmet, perhaps indicating a change of supplier. Hopefully tomorrow will be dry and the RB3 can have a full day of trouble free running.

1		F. Alonso		McLaren		1:12.563		85L
2		N. Piquet jr.		Renault		1:13.549		27L
3		F. Montagny		Toyota		1:13.672		33L
13		M. Webber		RBR		1:15.726		27L

* These times are not 100% verified, Renault, Autosport, F1.com and F1Racing are all giving different times so no need to contact me if you see differing times.