Rubens Barrichello topped the first practice session for the European Grand Prix in Valencia as Brawn look to get their stuttering season back on track.
The Brazilian finished ahead of the McLaren pair of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, with championship leader Jenson Button fourth fastest.
Most teams were testing updated cars amid hot temperatures in eastern Spain.
Renault and Ferrari new-boys Romain Grosjean and Luca Badoer both finished well down the timesheets.
Badoer, 38, is only driving for Ferrari because seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was not considered fit enough to replace the injured Felipe Massa - and the Italian duly finished with the slowest time as he got to grips with the Formula 1 spotlight.
Grosjean, who is replacing the sacked Nelson Piquet Jr, came 17th.
Morning practice at the Valencia street circuit marked the first grand prix action after a month-long summer break and many teams have brought modified cars into the 11th instalment of the 17-race season.
Practice timesheets are essentially irrelevant - teams are largely testing cars and running different programmes for each of their two drivers in order to collect data they can analyse afterwards.
But McLaren, for whom defending world champion Lewis Hamilton won the last grand prix in Hungary, may be heartened that their recent progress appears to be continuing with their strong showing.
Championship-chasing Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber came in fifth and eighth respectively, with Vettel reporting "good balance" through all corners back to his garage.
Many teams said the track was both dirty and slippery, and times indicated that: Barrichello's best of one minute 42.460 seconds was well down on Massa's 2008 qualifying pole lap of 1:38.989.
The Brazilian finished ahead of the McLaren pair of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, with championship leader Jenson Button fourth fastest.
Most teams were testing updated cars amid hot temperatures in eastern Spain.
Renault and Ferrari new-boys Romain Grosjean and Luca Badoer both finished well down the timesheets.
Badoer, 38, is only driving for Ferrari because seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was not considered fit enough to replace the injured Felipe Massa - and the Italian duly finished with the slowest time as he got to grips with the Formula 1 spotlight.
Grosjean, who is replacing the sacked Nelson Piquet Jr, came 17th.
Morning practice at the Valencia street circuit marked the first grand prix action after a month-long summer break and many teams have brought modified cars into the 11th instalment of the 17-race season.
Practice timesheets are essentially irrelevant - teams are largely testing cars and running different programmes for each of their two drivers in order to collect data they can analyse afterwards.
But McLaren, for whom defending world champion Lewis Hamilton won the last grand prix in Hungary, may be heartened that their recent progress appears to be continuing with their strong showing.
Championship-chasing Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber came in fifth and eighth respectively, with Vettel reporting "good balance" through all corners back to his garage.
Many teams said the track was both dirty and slippery, and times indicated that: Barrichello's best of one minute 42.460 seconds was well down on Massa's 2008 qualifying pole lap of 1:38.989.
Source: BBC
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